Euro 2025 preview
England Women begin their defence of their Euros title tonight at 8pm (UK time) against France in Switzerland, a tough opening fixture. Whatever happens, I hope this tournament gets more people interested in the women’s game. After some disrupted preparations - several players pulled out of the squad for different reasons a few weeks ago - England seem to be approaching the first game in good shape.
I was at the final pre-tournament game, a one-sided but still impressive 7-0 win against Jamaica in Leicester last Sunday - I’ve included some photos from that game below. Although the game didn’t provide much of a test for the defence (Jamaica had no shots all game, though they did have a goal ruled out for offside by VAR; by comparison England had 33 shots).
Looking at the squad, England have great depth in attack. Alessia Russo will start as striker (she won the WSL golden boot this season). It will be interesting to see whether Lauren James (sister of Chelsea men’s captain Reece), pictured below warming up, who is returning from injury, will be ready to start; if not it’s likely that Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead will start either side of Russo, as they did on Sunday.
When England won the Euros three years ago, coach Sarina Wiegman (who had won the previous tournament with the Netherlands) was astute in her use of substitutions (better known as ‘finishers’). We can expect to see Chloe Kelly (who came on to score the winning goal in the 2022 final, and did a memorable celebration), Aggie Beever-Jones and Michelle Agyemang play their part off the bench.
At the top of midfield, there is more strength in depth: Ella Toone (who scored two against Jamaica) will be vying for a starting spot with Manchester United teammate Grace Clinton, Jess Park and perhaps - if she doesn’t start wide - James (who replaced her on Sunday).
There is less depth further back, though: Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh are guaranteed starters (as they were three years ago). If Walsh (one of those defensive midfielders whose critical influence can be overlooked) gets injured, as she did at the World Cup two years ago, Leah Williamson might move forward.
With Millie Bright having dropped out of the squad a few weeks ago, the central defensive partnership of captain Williamson and Alex Greenwood picks itself. The two fullbacks, veteran Lucy Bronze on the right and Jess Carter on the left, combined for the second goal last week, but Carter has competition for her spot from Niamh Charles.
The unexpected decision by Mary Earps, who was Sports Personality of the Year in 2023, to announce her international retirement a few weeks ago, leaves Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton (below) as the only goalkeeper in the squad with any caps, so we have to hope Hampton remains fit and avoids suspensions. She looked likely to be the No 1 anyway.
England’s first two opponents in Group D - France tonight and the Netherlands on Wednesday - are also plausible winners of the competition, but only two teams can get out of the Group stages (cue ‘Group of Death’ cliches). So a win tonight would be a good result.
England’s final Group game a week tomorrow against Wales - who are in their first major women’s tournament, and are the lowest-ranked team in the competition - could therefore be a must-win for England (and of course Wales will rightly be hoping to cause an upset). I’d like to see Wales do well1 (they have several current and former Leicester players in the squad, including Hannah Cain), but not that well. 🏴 🏴
Even if England get out of the Group, the route to the Final will be tricky. The winner of Group D will play the runner up of Group C (Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Poland) in the quarter finals, and vice versa. Germany are looking strong, and Sweden beat Denmark yesterday.
If England win Group D and get through the quarter-final, there’s a good chance we’ll then meet pre-tournament favourites Spain (who beat us in the World Cup Final two years ago) in the semi-finals. So coming second in Group D - as if that could be planned - might work out better; we’d then probably have to beat Germany in the quarter-finals, but would not meet Spain, if we got that far, until the Final.
Luck and randomness is a big part of football, so an England exit at the Group stage is quite possible. But if we can navigate a way to the Final (and Wiegman has an excellent tournament record) we’ll have demonstrated enough quality and resilience to show we have a good chance of retaining that title in Basel on July 27th. Whatever happens, I hope the journey over the next few weeks is long and entertaining…
But as I write this they are losing rather badly to the Netherlands.