Women’s Euro 2025 qualifiers – are England faced with a group of death?

After the Lionesses’ history-making victory at the Women’s Euros in summer 2022, England fans up and down the country are chomping at the bit to see how their 2025 campaign pans out. What everyone wants to know is, will football come home again, or will they fall at the first hurdle?

The qualifying draw took place in Switzerland, the hosts of next year’s competition, on the 5^th of March and, similarly to the Nations League, teams were split into Leagues A, B, and C depending on their Nations League rankings. England were soon handed their Group A3 opponents: France, Sweden, and the Republic of Ireland.

Reeling from their loss in the Women’s World Cup final against Spain in August 2023, the Lionesses (and of course the fans) will surely be glad that they have managed to narrowly avoid facing Spain this early on in the qualifying stages of the competition, but the group they have been given is still an undoubtedly challenging one. France, England, and Sweden are ranked third, fourth, and fifth respectively in the FIFA rankings, so it is certainly looking like it will be a close group. The Republic of Ireland are currently 24^th, but the rivalry between England and Ireland runs deep: the Girls in Green won’t be going down without a fight.

England beat Sweden 4-0 in their Euro 2022 semi-final on their road to European glory, but Sweden have a number of strong players – many of whom play in the Women’s Super League – and so are rather accustomed to England’s style of play. With respect to France, the two met in a friendly in 2021 and France won 3-1, but they have not met in a competition since the SheBelieves Cup group stage in 2018 where they beat the French 4-1. Ultimately, it seems to be a meeting which can go either way and will absolutely have us on the edge of our seats.  

Luckily, Sarina Wiegman, the England manager, seems to be very optimistic about the team’s prospects in the qualifiers – and she has definitely demonstrated, along with the team, that she is not one to crumble under pressure. Wiegman will be gunning for her third Euros win, having secured the first with her home nation, the Netherlands, in 2017 and of course, the latest with England in 2022. Will she lead England to glory again? Only time – and the qualifiers – will tell us how far she’s prepared to go.

In other news, Scotland are due to face Serbia, Slovakia, and Israel; Wales will meet Croatia, Ukraine, and Kosovo; Northern Ireland will battle against Portugal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Malta. Viewers can tune in to see how these nations fare in the qualifiers which will take place between April and July this year before the tournament itself kicks off in July 2025 in Switzerland.