The Young Football Ferns have been handed a tough draw for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup overnight in Azerbaijan, landing Japan, Brazil and Mexico in their group for the September finals.

All three of New Zealand's pool games are in stadiums within Baku, the Azeri capital where the draw for the 16 nation tournament was held.

The Young Football Ferns open Group C against Mexico on September 23, take on the Asian champions three days later and complete pool play against the South American champions on September 30.

On paper only Group B, where powerhouses North Korea, France and the USA are joined by Gambia, can lay a stronger claim to the 'Group of Death' tag but New Zealand coach Paul Temple is taking a pragmatic and positive approach to progressing beyond pool play.

"That first game against Mexico will be huge because it sets everything up and dictates your attitude leading into the final two matches," Temple said.

"We will need to win that first game to give ourselves the best chance to qualify from the group.

"It's obviously a very tough group with opposition that present different challenges to us but we have to be confident in our own ability to cause them problems too. We'll be taking a positive approach and giving it our best shot at causing some upsets.

"I'm confident in the ability of my players to be able to rise to the challenge and make these teams take note of us.

"Who we play is out of our control, what we can control is our performances and so that will be the focus now leading into the tournament."

Group A sees hosts Azerbaijan pooled with Colombia, Nigeria and Canada while Germany drew Uruguay, China and Ghana in Group D.

The top two teams in each of the four group progress to the quarterfinals.

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

Draw

Group A: Azerbaijan, Colombia, Nigeria, Canada

Group B: France, USA, Korea DPR, Gambia

Group C: Mexico, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan

Group D: Uruguay, China PR, Ghana, Germany

New Zealand schedule

New Zealand v Mexico

Bayil Stadium, Baku

September 23

3pm (10pm NZT)

New Zealand v Japan

8km Stadium, Baku

September 26

8pm (3am 27/9 NZT)

New Zealand v Brazil

8km Stadium, Baku

September 30

2pm (9pm NZT)