Netherlands Women

On 17 April 1971, the Dutch team played the first women's international football match recognized by FIFA against France. The match took place in Hazebrouck, France and resulted in a 4–0 defeat for the Netherlands, Jocelyne Ratignier and Marie-Claire Caron-Harant scoring.

In 1980s and 1990s, the team failed to qualify for the final tournaments of UEFA's European Championship and later also for the FIFA's World Championship. The Royal Dutch Football Association began major investments into women's football in the 2000s, culminating in the establishment of the Women's Eredivisie in 2007 (which was merged with the Belgian league in 2012). This resulted in the team qualifying for a major tournament for the first time at the UEFA Women's Euro 2009. They finished in third place, together with Norway, behind second placed England and winners Germany (first place). The team again qualified for the UEFA Women's Euro 2013, but did not advance after the group stage.

The team qualified for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and reached thirteenth place, losing their first match in the knockout stage to Japan.

In 2017, the Netherlands won their first major women's trophy, ending Germany's seemingly unbeatable reign over the UEFA Women's Championship and surprising friend and foe alike by winning the tournament on home soil, beating Denmark 4–2 in the final. The successful campaign in which oranje managed to win all of their matches highly contributed to the popularity of women's football in the Netherlands.

In 2018, the Netherlands finished second in their UEFA Qualifying Group behind Norway. Therefore, they had to go through the UEFA play-off in order to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. Switzerland, Belgium and Denmark were the other teams in the play-off. The Netherlands beat Denmark 4–1 on aggregate in the play-off semi-finals and repeated that result against Switzerland over two legs in the play-off final to qualify. In the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Netherlands had another strong performance, reaching the final before losing 2–0 to the United States.

They qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics thanks to their position at the 2019 World Cup where they finished among the 3 best European teams. The Netherlands passed the 1st round at their first Olympic participation, finishing at the top of their group thanks to 2 large victories (10–3 against Zambia and 8–2 against China) and a draw (3–3 against Brazil), displaying an attractive offensive game but a certain defensive frailty (8 goals conceded in the group stages). However, their journey ended in the quarter-finals against the United States, an opponent who had already played the role of tormentor of the Oranje in the final of the French World Cup two years earlier, losing in penalty kicks (2–2, 2 pts to 4). The Dutch will have regrets, Lieke Martens having missed a decisive penalty in the 81st minute of the game when the score was tied 2–2.

Coach Sarina Wiegman left the team after the Olympics and was replaced by Englishman Mark Parsons. The Netherlands reached UEFA Women's Euro 2022 in England with a perfect record of ten victories in qualification. In England, the Netherlands passed the group stage thanks to two victories over Switzerland and Portugal. A draw against Sweden however meant the team had to face France in the quarterfinals. Although they only lost in extra time, they were thoroughly outplayed and it was decided to part ways with Parsons.

Andries Jonker took over coaching responsibilities and was immediately faced with a must win game versus Iceland if the Netherlands wanted to avoid the play-offs for the 2023 World Cup. In a tense game Esmee Brugts scored the desperately needed goal only in stoppage time and the Netherlands qualified for their third World Cup.

At the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, Netherlands were in Group E along with USA, Portugal and Vietnam. It started with a 1-0 win over Portugal, followed this with a 1-1 draw with USA and finished with a 7-0 victory over Vietnam to top the group.