体坛英语新闻：16 teams to compete at FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France

PARIS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brittany in northwestern part of France is ready to embrace the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup witnessing a total of 16 teams across the globe.

The tournament will raise the curtain with four matches of Group A and B on Sunday.

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was founded in 2002 as the the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, before the age limit has been raised to the current 20 since 2006. The event has been renamed as a World Cup since the 2008 competition.

Starting in 2010, the tournament was held one year prior to the FIFA Women's World Cup in the same hosting country, similar to the role of the FIFA Confederations Cup in men's counterpart.

The United States and Germany have been the most successful teams with each winning three titles, and the remaining two champions went to DPR Korea.

However, no team has been successful in defending the title, and current holders DPR Korea are much looking forward to changing that fate.

China, qualifying through last year's AFC U-19 Women's Championship, are placed in Group D with Germany, Nigeria and Haiti, with the group opener against debutants Haiti next Monday.

China's previous best results were runners-up in 2004 and 2006, but they failed to survive group stage in latest three attempts, in 2008, 2012 and 2014. As for the 2010 and 2016 tournaments, China failed to make into the finals.