England, the holders, have been drawn in a group with France, the Netherlands and their neighbours Wales for the 2025 Women’s European Championship in Switzerland.
It is the most eye-catching of the four groups, given that it includes the past two winners – the Netherlands triumphed in 2017 – and will mean England’s Dutch head coach, Sarina Wiegman, faces her native country. Two teams qualify from each group for the quarter-finals.
Spain, the world champions, avoided many of the high-ranked sides in a group containing Portugal, Belgium and Italy, while Germany face a tricky group that includes the 2017 runners-up Denmark and the 2022 semi-finalists Sweden.
England will be seeking to defend the title they won for the first time in 2022 on home soil, while Wiegman will be aiming to win the title for the third time in a row, having also guided the Netherlands to glory. She has reached four major tournament finals in a row as a manager, including back-to-back World Cup finals.
Reacting to the draw, the Netherlands’ current manager, Andries Jonker, said: “I think the winner of this group can win the whole tournament because that is the quality and the strength of the group [D].
“It is a lot easier when you compare our group to Group A. We have three top teams in Group D and no top team in Group A with all the respect to them. But our team is used to handling situations so it is the way it is. It is always special [facing Wiegman] because we’re friends. Normally with friends you wish them the best but as sportspeople we want to beat the other one. We both want to win. That means you have to hurt your friend. But we are both on the same page and the respect for each other won’t change.”
Group A Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland
Group B Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy
Group C Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden
Group D France, England, Wales, Netherlands
Wiegman said: “The group is tough. But at the same time these are the facts and we knew, with how the pots were, that it would be difficult anyway. The women’s game is developing so quickly so I don’t think there are easy things any more. We have seen in the Nations League we have two tough games and we just have to be ready. Straight away, you have to be at the top level when we go into the tournament and that makes us really sharp.”
Wales have qualified for a major women’s tournament for the first time after their playoff victory over the Republic of Ireland.
Switzerland, as hosts, were seeded with Spain, France and the record eight-times winners Germany in the top pot for the draw and were therefore separated at the group stage.
The opening game of the tournament will be between Iceland and Finland in Thun on 2 July, before Switzerland meet Norway – who are managed by the English former Wales manager Gemma Grainger – later on the same evening at St Jakob-Park in Basel on Wednesday 2 July 2025. That same 38,000-capacity venue will also stage the final on Sunday 27 July.
Wiegman also welcomed that England will play both of their first two matches in the same city, Zurich, adding: “That is going to be helpful. The country is not that big anyway. Of course the more you can diminish travelling, the more time you have to recover and prepare for games.”
Earlier Uefa’s executive committee approved a €41m (£34m) prize fund for the competition, more than double the €16m pot from the 2022 tournament, which was delayed by a year because of the pandemic. It was confirmed that between 30% and 40% of the prize money awarded to each participating nation would go to the players for the first time.
