Wales, who beat the Republic of Ireland in a playoff for a place at Euro 2025, have been drawn with holders England, France and 2017 champions Netherlands in the “group of death” for the tournament in Switzerland next summer.
It is the most eye-catching of the four groups, given that it includes the past two winners and will mean the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, faces her native country, the Netherlands. Two teams qualify from each group for the quarter-finals.
The world champions Spain avoided many of the high-ranked opponents, in a group containing Portugal, Belgium and Italy, while Germany face a tricky-looking 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 in 2017. Wiegman has reached four major tournament finals in a row as a manager, including back-to-back World Cup finals.
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Wales qualified for a major women’s tournament for the first time after beating Ireland 3-2 on aggregate.
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.
Earlier Uefa’s executive committee approved a €41m 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 per cent and 40 per cent of the prize money awarded to each participating nation would go to the players for the first time. – Guardian
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