Euro 2025 Wales v England rival fans gather in St. Gallen

BBC News

6 hours ago

Thousands of Welsh and English football fans have arrived in the Swiss city of St. Gallen before Sunday's Euro 2025 match between the two countries.A win will guarantee England's Lionesses a place in the last eight of the tournament.Wales will be eliminated unless they beat England by four goals or more and the Netherlands lose to France.Wales have lost their two opening Group D matches to the Dutch and French, each by three goal margins, while England bounced back from a loss to France with a 4-0 win against the Netherlands.
England fan Vicky Morgan, 40, from Surbiton in south west London, has travelled to Switzerland with Welsh friends Hannah Maddy, 39, from Barry and 43-year-old Jo McSweeney from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan."We've been friends for a very long time. We met while at Cardiff University but still stay close and have been in Switzerland for two days," said Vicky."I was at the last final that we won [England are the defending champions]. It was an immense game and since then the game has just grown and grown."It's great to see so many young fans watching the Lionesses. I'm a teacher myself so it has grown the game in schools as well."Despite Wales being on the brink of a group stage exit, Hannah and Jo still feel Wales could cause an upset:"I've got all the hope. I reckon 4-0 and England to be knocked out," said Jo."I'd take that," added Hannah. "I reckon 5-1, [Jess] Fishlock hat-trick, [Sophie] Ingle and Ffion Morgan."
Phillip Spakouskas is a 48-year-old St. Gallen native who will be supporting England because his father is English."I was buzzing knowing England would be coming here and seeing all the fans, even Welsh fans on Tuesday and Wednesday - they were fantastic - and I'm really looking forward to Sunday as well," he said."I saw the France v Wales game [in St. Gallen] and I thought the Welsh girls were quite good but the French were better and I think England will be massive favourites."I thought they [England] weren't up to it against France but against the Netherlands they were really good."Phillip said the people of St. Gallen had embraced being a host location at Euro 2025 and hopes there will be a legacy in place for women's football, especially in Switzerland."It started slowly then the first game was Germany v Poland and from then on it really has been buzzing," he added."I've met a lot of fans in St. Gallen - German, Polish, French and Welsh. They all say it's a nice city, not big but it has nice architecture and it's clean."For women's football it's the next step, England was buzzing three years ago [when they hosted the tournament] but this is another step."Birmingham couple Mike and Carol Adams, 67 and 70 respectively, follow the Lionesses across the world and have high hopes of qualification for the knockout stages despite the early tournament defeat to France in Zurich."It's massively important to be here and fingers crossed for a win," said Mike."When you look at the draw, it has certainly favoured other people hasn't it? Because we are in the toughest group there's no doubt about that."She [England coach Sarina Wiegman] changed the tactics. The first game she just seemed to allow them to sit back and Hempo [Lauren Hemp] and Bronzey [Lucy Bronze] never ever went down the sides and the French just came on to us and realised they could beat us."I'd like to think we can win the tournament but Spain are really hot aren't they?"Carol has enjoyed meeting Welsh fans since arriving in St. Gallen, saying: "It's wonderful. It's what you want, everybody here from the United Kingdom, so it's great to have Wales here and the banter is brilliant."Mike added: "We are on a campsite not too far away surrounded by Welsh fans and we were sat drinking with them last night. Everyone wants a good game."
Among the expected 3,500 Welsh fans in St. Gallen are representatives of the Wales women's walking football squad.Jane Clemence, 58, is from Cardiff and has travelled with teammates Leanne Williams, 47, from Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and Juliette Payne, who's lived in Merthyr Tydfil for 27 years.Jane said: "We've been to Sweden for the world walking football championships last weekend representing Wales in different age categories. The over-40s got into the semi finals and the over-50s reached the quarter finals. It's a tough three days - 25 minute games, three or four times a day."We travelled across by train and boat to get here via Munich in Germany. You see the kids going around with the ladies' names on the backs of their shirts, we didn't have that in our day. It's come on so much in the last 30 years."Aneurin Williams has travelled with members of his family from Blaenau Gwent, and said: "We have all the faith [against England], we've got the fans, and we can always do England over, they've got nothing special about them. We've had friendly banter with England fans."Linda Rosser from Merthyr Tydfil agrees, saying: "Absolutely they can. I've got every faith in them."We came out for the French game, so we came out on Tuesday. It has been amazing, we're having a fantastic time."