England & Wales bid to survive 'toughest group of all'
'The most lopsided draw I have ever seen'
Group D, according to Netherlands boss Andries Jonker, is the "toughest group of all" at Euro 2025.And Opta have backed up his claim, with the stat experts' supercomputer predicting there's a 37% chance a Group D team will win the tournament. That's 7% higher than the second-favourite group."It's the most lopsided draw I have ever seen," football journalist Tom Garry told the Football Daily podcast."The doomsday scenario for England and Wales is that they could both be out before they play each other in the third game."
Two former champions
England arrive in Switzerland as the defending champions while the Netherlands won the previous tournament in 2017 - both were managed by Sarina Wiegman.Both teams won all three of their group-stage games when they won the title.The defending champions have never failed to progress past the group stage at a European Championship."Straight from the beginning, we need to be really sharp and strong but that's also the case for the other teams," England head coach Wiegman said when the draw was made.The Lionesses have won their past 14 group-stage matches at major tournaments while the Netherlands are unbeaten in their past 13.Jonker said: "This is the toughest group of all with three top countries. We have to accept this and go for the challenge and believe in ourselves."We are not coming to participate, we think we can beat every country."
France on fine form
France have never won a major trophy but they have an impressive group-stage record, progressing in each of their past eight major tournament appearances.And Laurent Bonadei's team have form on their side. They are on an eight-game winning run and have only conceded two goals since February while they last tasted defeat in December - to world champions Spain.England full-back Lucy Bronze says Saturday's opening match between the sides is not to be missed."Both teams are full of exciting attacking talent and I think it's the game everyone is going to be watching because it's surely the most exciting group game coming into a Euros," right-back Bronze said.Les Bleues left-back Selma Bacha also said she is "very happy" to play England first, adding: "That's going to put us straight into the thick of things for the Euros."However, this will be the first time since 2005 that France have been at a Euros or World Cup without both Wendie Renard and all-time leading scorer Eugenie le Sommer, who were controversially left out of Bonadei's side."The experience and the amount of caps that Renard and Le Sommer have is absolutely huge," said former England forward Ellen White."To have that completely wiped from your squad is a really interesting dynamic to go into this tournament."Former Scotland defender Jen Beattie said: "They've obviously seen something and made a big decision, and they were also quoted saying 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'."
Wales will 'embrace' underdog status
Competing in their first major tournament and as the lowest ranked team in the compteition, Wales are not only the underdogs for Group D but for the whole of Euro 2025."People can call us underdogs and write us off as much as they want but our belief in ourselves will be the most important thing," said Wales forward Jess Fishlock."I think we will embrace it and we will use it as an advantage."Despite their lower ranking, Wales have shown they can compete with top teams under coach Rhian Wilkinson, claiming two impressive draws against Sweden earlier this year. "It absolutely terrifies me playing Wales in the last game and trying to get points because it will be such a hard game," White said."It will be a European final for Wales. They've got enthusiasm, you don't know what to expect, they're competitive, the fans are going to be amazing. That's going to be a really hard test for England."However, history isn't on Wales' side. Only one of the past six teams making their debut in the Euros have made it out of the group.
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