Seven things you need to know about the World Cup in France

With the World Cup about the get started, here are seven things you have to know about the competition.

8th World Cup, 6th host

France will be the sixth country to host a World Cup. The others were China (1991 and 2007), Sweden (1995), the United States (1999 and 2003), Germany (2011) and Canada (2015).

Four first-timers

Seven teams have all played in every world cup: the United States, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Japan and Nigeria. On the other hand, Chile, Jamaica, South Africa and Scotland are playing in it for the first time.

France's 9 host cities 

Matches will be played in Lyon, Grenoble, Le Havre, Montpellier, Nice, Paris, Reims, Rennes and Valenciennes.

Formiga's record

A special mention must be made of the legendary Brazilian and current PSG midfielder Formiga, who, at 41 years of age, will play in her record seventh World Cup.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

The team with the most titles is the United States, which have won 3 of the 7 World Cups, are the defending champions, and have always finished in the top three. Germany (2), Norway and Japan are the other previous winners.

522 players, 46 from La Liga

There will be 46 players from the Spanish top flight taking part. The only country contributing more players to this year's World Cup is the the United States, with 73 (counting both professionals and college players).

15 Barça players

Barça, however, is the most represented club, with 15 players from the 2018/19 squad taking part: Paños, Marta Torrejón, Andrea Pereira, María León, Leila, Aitana, Vicky, Alexia, Patri, Mariona, Martens, Van der Gragt, Duggan, Andressa Alves, and Oshoala. Olympique Lyonnais is second with 14 players.