Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to the summer of 2021. However, their official name remained 2020 Summer Olympics. Great Britain were placed in pot two for the group stage draw based on the FIFA seeding for England who qualified on behalf of Great Britain. The team was drawn into Group E with host nation Japan, Canada and Chile. They had originally arranged one friendly in Stoke against Zambia who were preparing to make their Olympic debut. However, COVID-19 travel restrictions prevented them from entering the country and they were forced to withdraw. While in Japan, Great Britain eventually managed to play a closed-doors training match a week prior to their opening group game, reportedly beating New Zealand 3–0 at the Todoroki Athletics Stadium on 14 July.
