1968–1984: Early history and unofficial tournaments The women's national team played its first game on 23 February 1968, in
Viareggio against
Czechoslovakia. However, the national team was not yet part of the Italian Women's Football Federation, which was founded on 11 March in Viareggio. From the beginning, they took part in various continental and international tournaments in Europe and in the world, also achieving good successes. With the birth of the
European Competition for Women's Football (
1984), organized by
UEFA, and later the
Women's World Cup, organized by
FIFA, the highest international women's competitions became equivalent to the men's competitions. After its debut in 1968, the Italy national team took to the field to compete in other non-official international friendlies and tournaments, such as the
European Competition in 1969 that saw it win the final over
Denmark, the
World Cup in 1970 that saw it lose the final against the aforementioned Danish national team, competitions both organized in
Italy, and the Mundial in
Mexico in 1971 where they achieved third place. In 1979, Italy hosted, and participated in the
unofficial European Competition, reaching the final again, which took place at the
San Paolo Stadium in
Naples, and in which Denmark triumphed again. Between 1981 and 1988 there were five editions of the
Mundialito, an international invitation-only tournament, one of the most prestigious events in the women's football scene before the advent of the World Cup. Apart from the first edition in 1981 that was organized in
Japan, the next four were organized in Italy, where the Italy national team obtained three victories and two second places overall. The triumphs arrived in 1981, winning the group, in 1984 overcoming
West Germany in the final and in 1986 overcoming the
United States in the final, while in the other two editions it lost the final against
England.
1984–1991: First World Cup and European Championship In 1984, UEFA organized the
first European Competition. Italy won Group 3 of the
qualifiers, being one of four teams to qualify for the final round. Italy faced
Sweden, being defeated both in the first leg, played at the
Flaminio Stadium in
Rome in front of 10,000 spectators, and in the return match in
Linköping. Italy were also confirmed in the
1989 edition, having passed the
qualifying phase with a play-off win against
France. Italy finished fourth in the tournament, having lost the semi-final against
West Germany after a
penalty shoot-out, as well as in the third place match against Sweden
after extra time. In the
1991 European Championship, Italy was once again admitted to the four-team finals, after having won the
qualifying play-off against the Sweden. In the final tournament, Italy repeated what had happened two years before, losing both the semi-final against the German hosts and the final for third place against Denmark, although even with the fourth-place finish, gained access to the first edition of the World Cup organized by FIFA in the same year. Italy ended the group in second place with two victories against Taipei and Nigeria and a defeat against Germany; all four goals for the team came from Carolina Morace. Italy advanced to the quarter-finals, where they were defeated by Norway 3–2 after extra time. After defeating
England in the final play-off match, Italy overcame
Germany in the semi-finals after a
penalty shoot-out. In the final, played at the Manuzzi Stadium in
Cesena, Italy was defeated 1–0 by Norway. In the semi-final Italy beat
Spain 2–1, but in the final, were defeated 2–0 by Germany.
2000–2011: Decline With the beginning of the 2000s, a decline in the performance of the Italy national team began. At the
2001 European Championship, Italy, coached by
Carolina Morace, were eliminated in the group stage due to a worse goal difference compared to Norway. Four years later, at the
2005 European Championship, Italy finished last in its group with zero points, losing all three of their matches against
Germany, Norway and France, conceding twelve goals overall. Redemption came in the
2009 edition, with Italy defeating both
England and
Russia, advancing to the knock-out stage as second-placed in the group behind
Sweden who had defeated them. In the quarter-finals, Italy faced Germany, where they lost 2–1; Germany would ultimately win their seventh continental title. Having failed to qualify for the
2003 and
2007 editions of the World Cup, Italy also failed to qualify for the
2011 edition in the
intercontinental two-legged play-off between
UEFA and
CONCACAF. The United States won the first leg 1–0 in
Padua with a goal by
Alex Morgan in the fourth minute of added time, while they also won the second leg by a score of 1–0 in
Bridgeview with a goal by
Amy Rodriguez in the first half.
2011–2017: Slim World Cup qualification miss Italy qualified for the
2013 European Championship in Sweden by winning the
qualifying group with nine victories out of ten matches. At the tournament, Italy was drawn in Group A with hosts Sweden, Denmark and
Finland. With one win, one draw and one defeat, Italy advanced from the group stage to the quarter-finals in second place, but were defeated 1–0 by Germany. In the following two years, Italy, led by
Antonio Cabrini, was involved in the
qualification for the
2015 World Championship: despite eight victories out of ten games, including two record victories against
North Macedonia (11–0 and 15–0), they finished in second place in Group 2 behind Spain, sending Italy to the play-offs. In the first round of the play-offs, Italy defeated
Ukraine 4–3 on aggregate, but were defeated by the
Netherlands 3–2 on aggregate in the final round of the play-offs. Italy
qualified for the
2017 European Championship second in its group behind
Switzerland. At the European Championship, Italy finished in last place in Group B behind Germany, Sweden and Russia, despite the victory in the third game against Sweden.
2017–2023: First World Cup qualification in 20 years match against
Australia. On 8 June 2018, twenty years since their last participation, Italy
qualified for the
2019 FIFA World Cup, winning its qualifying group with a game in hand. In the group stage of the tournament, Italy won
Group C, recording two victories against
Australia (2–1) and
Jamaica (5–0), which guaranteed advancement to the knockout stage, with Italy's defeat to
Brazil (0–1) irrelevant to the final table. In the round of 16, Italy won 2–0 over
China, advancing to the quarter-finals for the second time in their history. However, with a 2–0 defeat to
European Champions the
Netherlands, Italy's World Cup journey came to an end on 29 June 2019. The following year, Italy advanced to the final of the
2020 Algarve Cup (and the first Algarve Cup final of their history) but Italy had to withdraw the match due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and
Germany were declared as winners. In the
2022 Algarve Cup, Italy managed to reach the final again but lost against
Sweden 6–5 at the
penalty shoot-outs after the 1–1 draw after the extra-time. However, Italy failed to produce the same form in the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022, finishing bottom with only one point and one goal scored, though much blames were taken for the
Serie A having not gone professional until the end of the tournament. After that failure, Italy qualified for the
2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by winning two games against
Moldova and
Romania with the team now fully recognised professional, finishing top of the group in the qualifiers, ahead of
Switzerland, which was rather an irony after the men's team fell victim to the same
Swiss opponents in the
2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. ==Results and fixtures==