Spain
The reigning world champion, the winner of the Nations League, and the team with the best player in the world (Aitana Bonmatí): on paper, Spain is the top favorite for the European Championship. However, ‘La Roja’s’ preparation was not without its problems.
Bonmatí was unexpectedly hospitalized last week with viral meningitis. She has since returned to the group, but can the FC Barcelona player perform at her best?
It is striking that the Spanish selection has been changed in twelve places compared to the 2023 World Cup. Among others, Jennifer Hermoso, the victim of the ‘kissing scandal’, has dropped out. Nevertheless, Spain remains the favorite for the title.
France
France is in the ‘group of death’ with the Netherlands. The French are among the favorites, although they are a difficult team to predict. Since Laurent Bonadei took over as national coach, the team has been in transition.
Just before the European Championship, Bonadei even made the decision to leave three experienced players out of the selection: captain Wendy Rénard, record international Eugénie Le Sommer, and the experienced midfielder Kenza Dali. With a selection full of quality, France hopes to win a final tournament for the first time.
France can head to Switzerland with a good feeling. The team has won the last eight matches. Since Bonadei took office, they have only lost twice: to world champion Spain and to Switzerland. France cannot settle in easily, because with England there is a lot at stake directly in the first European Championship match.
England
England, like France, is a team in transition, although that is not necessarily the choice of national coach Sarina Wiegman. To her displeasure, goalkeeper Mary Earps, defender Millie Bright, and midfielder Fran Kirby no longer made themselves available for the national team.
Nevertheless, Wiegman is aiming for nothing less than title prolongation. Three years ago, England crowned itself European champion for the first time in its own country. Wiegman had already become European champion with Orange in 2017.
England has had a mixed series of results. In the run-up to the European Championship, they lost to Spain (2-1) and Belgium (3-2). In the farewell match with Jamaica, England gained confidence with a monster score (7-0). Top attacker Lauren James also made her return in that match.
Germany
The Orange players are still sometimes startled by the defeat in Bremen, at the end of May in the Nations League. Germany outclassed Orange in all areas and won 4-0.
Germany showed that it has a good chance of winning the first European title in twelve years. The country is the record champion with eight European Championship titles and won the European Championships between 1995 and 2013. But since then, the trophy cabinet has remained empty. Three years ago, Germany reached the final, in which England was too strong.
Lena Oberdorf was in the starting line-up in that match, but the star player will not be there in Switzerland due to an injury. Compared to the last World Cup, Alexandra Popp is missing, who was an important player in the German team for many years.
Outsiders
Netherlands
For Orange, the first priority is to get through the difficult group with Wales, England and France. And even if that succeeds, for example with a second place, then a duel with Germany probably awaits in the quarter-finals.
Given the mixed results and the poor game of recent months, there is little indication of a repeat of the European Championship in 2017. Then Orange conquered the hearts of footballing Netherlands and won the European title.
But think back to the 2023 World Cup. Orange did not play great, but did reach the quarter-finals. In it, they only lost to later world champion Spain after extra time. Orange may grow in this tournament.
Sweden
Sweden might just surprise in Switzerland. In the last three final tournaments, the Scandinavian country has always reached the semi-finals. In addition, the European Championship is the last tournament for several players and staff members.
For example, captain Kosovare Asllani is likely to retire. If Sweden survives the group stage, Asllani can reach the magical limit of 200 international matches. The tournament also marks the end of coach Peter Gerhardsson’s period with the national team. He had been national coach since 2017.
Sweden was crowned European champion once. That was in 1984, when a European Championship for women was organized for the first time. Only four countries participated at that time: in addition to Sweden, also Italy, England and Denmark.