Soccer

Defending champions England to face debutants Wales in Euro 2025 group stage

The sides will meet in Group D in Switzerland.

Sarina Wiegman will lead England into a Battle of Britain with Wales at the Euro 2025 finals
Sarina Wiegman will lead England into a Battle of Britain with Wales at the Euro 2025 finals (Nick Potts/PA)
By PA Sport Staff

Defending champions England have been pitched into a Euro 2025 Battle of Britain with debutants Wales in an intriguing draw.

The Lionesses, who will also face head coach Sarina Wiegman’s native country the Netherlands in Group D, were paired with Rhian Wilkinson’s side, who will be playing at the finals of a major tournament for the first time after their play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland.

Wales will be the lowest-ranked team in Switzerland next summer at 30, some 26 places behind their neighbours, but will relish the opportunity to try to bloody the nose of the 2022 winners.

For Wiegman, there will also be an emotional reunion with the Dutch, who she led to European glory in 2017 before repeating the feat with the Lionesses five years later, becoming the first coach to do so.

Monday’s draw in Lausanne saw England, Wales – winners of Group B4 – and the Netherlands placed into the same pool as Pot 1 seeds France, who topped the Lionesses’ qualification group by a point after beating them 2-1 at St James’ Park in May before losing the return in Saint-Etienne by the same score.

However, Wiegman’s side avoided World Cup winners Spain, who were drawn into Group B with Italy, Portugal and Belgium, and 2022 runners-up Germany, who will face Sweden, Denmark and debutants Poland in Group C.

Hosts Switzerland will battle it out with Group A rivals Iceland, Norway and Finland for a place in the knockout stages.

The tournament will be played at eight venues – Basel, Bern, Geneva, Zurich, St Gallen, Lucerne, Sion and Thun – between July 2 and 27.

Meanwhile, UEFA has confirmed a huge rise in total prize money for the tournament to 41million euros, almost £34million.

A statement read: “The UEFA Executive Committee approved €41 million in prize money for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, representing a 156 per cent increase on the figure from 2022.

“Participating national associations will now also distribute a guaranteed percentage of the rewards – between 30 per cent and 40 per cent – to their players for the first time.”