UEFA Women's EURO 2022 - Group Rundown
This July we have the UEFA Women’s Euros to look forward to, which features 16 nations and is hosted by England. The competition has been described by UEFA as “transformative” as they hope that it will be the highest-attended women’s sports event in history. England’s Lionesses will be hoping that they are not to follow in England Men’s teams steps who faced a harsh loss in the UEFA Men’s Euros last summer, losing to Italy in the final. Sarina Wiegman who is regarded as one of the best international coaches in women’s football, took over the Lionesses last summer. Wiegman will be looking to continue her successful Euros track record this summer by leading England to their first final since 2009 and hopefully their first victory ever in this tournament.
GROUP A
To kick it off, let’s have a look at the hosts group. On the face of it, the Lionesses were probably relieved to not see the likes of Spain or Germany in their group – however, that does not mean it will be without its challenges. The opening game of the competition sees England face Austria at Old Trafford. Although this game shouldn’t cause too much anxiety for Sarina Wiegman’s team, Austria did manage to make it to the semi-finals on their tournament debut, only narrowly losing out to Denmark on penalties. Next up in Group A is Norway who are probably England’s fiercest competition within their group seeing as they have only failed to make the semi-finals twice since 1987. Northern Ireland make their debut in European football this summer by rounding off Group A.
GROUP B
‘Group of death’ is how Group B is being described by most people. At the top of Group B, we have Germany, 18-time winners of the Women’s Euro’s and probably the one team that most other teams were hoping to avoid in their group. However, if anyone is likely to be able to challenge the Germans in their first match of the competition, it would be Denmark who ended Germany’s 18-year reign as European Champions in 2017 when they beat them 2-1 in the final. Although Spain could be seen to have dropped off in terms of their performance over the last few competitions, they can be confident knowing that they have Alexia Putellas, UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and Ballan D’or winner on their side, as well as several other players from the treble-winning Barcelona team. To round off our ‘Group of death’ we have Finland who have found themselves unlucky to end up in this group. Hoping to be the underdogs of the competition, I dare say that Finland might just surprise us all – they certainly have a habit of overachieving.
GROUP C
Group C also includes some of our star competitors for this tournament, with the first game seeing defending Euro Champions Netherlands face Sweden who are ranked second in the world – both teams having won this tournament once before. The Netherlands will be entering the competition under new management after England’s Mark Parsons took over as head coach, and Sweden’s one to watch will no doubt be Golden Boot winner Vivianne Miedema. Also in Group C is Portugal who have taken Russia’s place in this tournament following their suspension. Portugal also made their debut in 2017 in which they failed to progress past the group stages. Finishing off Group C we have Switzerland who although they were the first team to win a UEFA Women’s Euro Playoff penalty shootout, have never made it past the group stages.
GROUP D
Last but not least, at the top of Group D, we have tournament favourites France. However, despite being regarded as one of the best European Football teams, France will be looking to break the Quarter-finals curse that has seemed to plague them for the last few years and looking to take their first Euro’s victory. France take on Italy in their first game of the tournament, a team who in recent history can only be described as underwhelming. Italy have not progressed further than the quarter-finals since 1997 and will be eager to prove that they are an improving team under Milena Bertolini. Third in Group D we have Iceland who raised eyebrows when they were the first men or women’s team from their nation to reach a major senior football tournament in 2009. Since then, they have reached every Euro’s tournament. Finishing off our last group we have our lowest ranked nation Belgium who are yet to reach the knock-out stages of this competition and seem unlikely to progress again.
