Women's Euros draw: England to face heavyweights, Spain take on Portugal

Sarina Wiegman's team, who beat Germany in the 2022 final at Wembley, were placed in a stern-looking Group D, alongside fellow heavyweights France and the Netherlands, during Monday's draw in Lausanne.

This will be the 14th edition of the Women's Euros since the tournament's inauguration in 1984.

Switzerland, who will face Norway, Iceland and Finland, are hosting the competition for the first time, becoming the sixth nation to host both the men's and women's Euros, after Germany, Italy, Sweden, England and the Netherlands.

The #WEURO2025 groups are set pic.twitter.com/xAEsFU6r6K

— UEFA Women's EURO 2025 (@WEURO2025) December 16, 2024

Two of the 16 teams are making their tournament debuts – Wales and Poland – with the other 14 sides having already featured in at least one previous edition.

The 2022 runners-up Germany will go up against Poland, Denmark and Sweden, while world champions Spain were drawn against Italy, Belgium and Iberian neighbours Portugal.

The tournament runs from July 2 through to July 27.

It will be hosted across eight stadiums, with Basel's St. Jakob-Park hosting the opening match – which sees Switzerland take on Norway – and the final.

Switzerland have never reached the knockout stages at the Euros. In fact, they have won only one of their previous six matches at the event, with that win coming against Iceland in 2017 (2-1). The Swiss have not managed to keep a single clean sheet in the competition.

However, they will have the home fans on their side. The last time a host country failed to make it to the knockout stages of the tournament was in 2005, when England missed out.

Champions in 1987 and 1993, Norway have won only one of their last eight matches at the Euros (D1 L6) – failing to score in six of these fixtures – and have been knocked out in the group stages on each of their last two participations.

However, they have plenty of talent to call on in their squad, including Frida Maanum, who scored seven goals in as many games in qualifying.

Aside from Germany, Norway are the only other team to have won the title on multiple occasions (twice). Sweden (1984), the Netherlands (2017) and England (2022) are the other winners.

Iceland have won just one of their 13 Euros matches – that 8% win ratio is the lowest among the 14 teams qualified for 2025 who have previously appeared in the competition.

Finland won three of their opening six Euros matches and reached the knockout stages of their first two tournaments, in 2005 and 2009. However, they have since failed to win any of their last eight games (D2 L6) and bowed out at the group phase in both 2013 and 2022.

World champions Spain were drawn into top spot in Group B.

This will be Spain's fifth appearance at the Euros, as they aim to become only the second team after Germany to concurrently hold the World Cup and Euro titles in the women's game.

Spain should be confident of progressing to the last eight, given their opposition.

Among teams to have taken part in at least two editions of the tournament, Portugal have the worst defensive record, conceding 2.5 goals per game on average (15 goals conceded in six matches).

Belgium, meanwhile, are not renowned for high-scoring encounters. Their seven matches at the Euros have produced 1.86 goals on average (six goals for, seven against), which is the lowest ratio amongst the 16 teams to have qualified.

Italy are competing in their 13th edition of the tournament, with only Norway able to match that number of participations. No team has played as many games as Italy at the Euros without ever winning the tournament (35 matches, including two appearances in the final).

Eight-time champions Germany head up Group C. They have lost only three of their last 40 matches at the Euros (W33 D4) – those defeats came against Norway in 2013 (group phase), Denmark in 2017 (quarter-final) and England in 2022 (final).

Poland set the lowest goal difference during qualification of all 16 teams to qualify for next year's event (-7).

They lost all six of their qualifying group-phase matches before winning their four play-off contests.

Denmark, with 33 Euros matches played, trail only Italy when it comes to games played without winning the competition.

Germany and Sweden will be the favourites to progress, and they are the only teams to have always reached the knockout stages at each edition of the Euros since the group phase was introduced in 1997.

France and England will face off against each other in a heavyweight Group D opener.

France have reached the knockout stages of the Euros in each of the last four editions, the longest current streak excluding those of Germany and Sweden. Of the teams who have never made the final, France have played more matches than any other nation (26).

Their best performance was reaching the semi-final in 2022, when they were knocked out by Germany.

England manager Wiegman will also come up against her home nation, the Netherlands – the team she led to Euros glory in 2017.

Wiegman, who has won all 12 of her games at the tournament, is the only boss to win the Euros with two different nations (Netherlands in 2017, England in 2022). In 2025, she could become the second manager to win the tournament in three consecutive editions, after Germany's Tina Theune.

It is a daunting task for debutants Wales.

Only four debutants have ever made it to the knockout stages of the tournament since the group stage was introduced: Spain in 1997, Finland in 2005, the Netherlands in 2009 and Austria in 2017.

The Netherlands have won eight of their last 10 matches over the last two tournaments (D1 L1); their only defeat in that time came against France, in the 2022 quarter-finals.