The Euros are only 3 days away! So, like everyone else we need to have a little preview post to let you know our predictions and players to watch.
Featured Image by Liondartois, CC BY-SA 4.0
Group A
Austria
Austria kicks off the Euros on Wednesday at Old Trafford against England which is sure to be a spectacle. The two sides met recently in November of last year for World Cup qualifiers which resulted in a 1-0 win to the hosts. Austria will be hoping to upset the party and get off to a strong start in a bid to make it out of the group. They will draw inspiration from their semi-final run on 2017 and a warm up win over Group D contenders Belgium.
Star Player: Sara Zadrazil. Bayern Munich midfielder will be pulling the strings for Austria and be a key factor in their success in the tournament.
Young Player to watch: MariaPlattner. The 21-year-old midfielder has scored 4 goals already for Austria this year including the recent winner against Belgium.
England
The hosts come into the tournament with high expectations. England are yet to lose under Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman, who just so happened to lead the Netherlands to a home win in 2017. Wiegman has been praised for her willingness to shake up the England set up and bring in exciting you players like Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly and Ella Toone. England will also be led by new captain Leah Williamson this Euros as former captain Steph Houghton missed out due to lack of fitness and game time post-injury. Williamson will likely start at defensive midfield rather than her usual Arsenal position of centre-back. Alex Greenwood and Millie Bright are the likely starting at centre-back pairing.
Star Player and Young Player to watch: Lauren Hemp. The 21-year-old Manchester City winger has been lighting up the WSL this season and has announced herself in the England starting line up with her pace and knack for goals. She is going to be causing a lot of headaches for coaches and right-backs this Euros trying to stop her.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland are the fairy tale team of this Euros finishing second to Norway in qualifying despite being the fourth ranked team in the group behind Wales and Belarus. They ultimately went on to beat Ukraine 4-1 on aggregate in the playoffs. The majority of Northern Ireland’s squad play semi-professionally in Northern Ireland with a few playing in professional leagues in England, Scotland, Sweden, and USA. The Irish FA have supported the team ahead of the Euros with the international team training in a full-time professional set up since the start of they year.
Star Players: Simone Magill and Lauren Wade. The strike partnership up top, if anyone is going to score it’ll be one of these two.
Young Player to watch: Kelsie Burrows. The 21-year-old left sided centre-back only has 8 caps to her name but she has been starting in recent matches against England and Belgium.
Norway
Norway have had a boost in recent months with the return of Ada Hegerberg to the national team set up and both Maren Mjelde and Caroline Graham Hansen returning from injuries. The Norwegian side come into the Euros with back-to-back wins against New Zealand and Denmark. The two biggest questions they will have to answer are:
- How will the defence cope without their usual number 1 Cecilie Fiskerstrand out injured and captain Mjelde returning from a knee injury?
- And how will their two superstars Hegerberg and Graham Hansen link up after only two games together?
If Norway are able to pass those two tests, they will be a scary team this Euros.
Star Player: Caroline Graham Hansen. The heart and soul of the Norwegian side, she could singlehandedly win a game for Norway with her runs and passes.
Young Player to watch: Julie Blakstad. The 20-year-old starting right back who be linking up with Graham Hansen and causing problems for most left backs.
Group A Prediction
Rosie: 1. England, 2. Norway, 3. Austria, 4. Northern Ireland
El: 1. England, 2. Norway, 3. Austria, 4. Northern Ireland
Marran: 1. England, 2. Norway, 3. Austria, 4. Northern Ireland
Group B
Denmark
Denmark has a tough road ahead if they are to replicate their success from Euro 2017 but it’s not impossible. Denmark’s strength is undoubtedly its attack led by Chelsea superstar Pernille Harder who is the country’s leading goal scorer. She is joined up front by Lyon’s Signe Bruun who scored 12 goals in 7 appearances in 2021 before an injury ruled her out of some early 2022 matches. The Dane’s biggest challenge this Euros will be experience, as they only have nine players returning from their finals run five years ago.
Star Player: Pernille Harder. Goal scoring captain will lead the team from the front.
Young Player to watch: Kathrine Kühl. The 18-year-old midfielder has a great passing vision and has been named on many you player watch lists. This Euros will be her coming out party and I expect she will be getting many phone calls from sides wanting her signature for the 2022/23 season and beyond
Finland
Finland have most definitely drawn the short straw with their group. In any other group there would perhaps be hope for them to qualify for the quarterfinals, but with eight-time winners Germany, current runners up Denmark, and a Spanish team on the rise their chances are slim. The Finnish team went undefeated in their Euro 2022 qualifying campaign scoring 24 goals and conceding only two, besting both Scotland and Portugal. Their preparation for the Euro has included two defeats to both Japan and the Netherlands. However, these experiences will have prepped them well for the challenge ahead.
Star Player: Linda Sällström. Finland’s all time leading goal scorer with 50 goals, she led the team in qualifying with 10 goals in 8 matches.
Young-ish Player to watch: Finlandhave one of the oldest squads at the Euros with 24-year-old Spurs midfielder Eveliina Summanen the fourth youngest in the squad.
Germany
Five years ago, Germany were holding onto a 22 year reign over the Euros – having won six consecutive titles between 1995 and 2013. Although much of the dynasty from 2013 have retired, Almuth Schult, Svenja Huth, and Sara Däbritz still remain as the stalwarts of the squad. They’ll be surrounded by a young-ish squad which has been a bit consistent in recent years. No one is quite sure which Germany will show up this Euros. On their day they will be a force to be reckoned with but with veteran midfielders Dzsenifer Marozsán and Melanie Leupolz out with an ACL and pregnancy, respectively, a few players will need to step up to fill their shoes.
Star Player: Sara Däbritz. With Marozsán and Leupolz out, Däbritz will need to anchor the German midfield a role that she is not unfamiliar with her responsibilities in the PSG midfield last season.
Young Player to watch: Jule Brand. 19-year-old midfielder impressed with Hoffenheim this season and has recently joined perennial German powerhouse Wolfsburg on a three-year deal for an undisclosed transfer fee.
Spain
The domestic form of Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and her Barcelona teammates has created a lot of hype around the Spanish national team. Although, the Spanish side will likely have eight Barcelona players in the starting line up, they have been unable the Barcelona to the national team under Jorge Vilda. Vilda has recently come under fire for not selecting Amaiur Sarriegi or any of her Real Sociedad teammates in the final 23, despite them comfortably coming second in Liga Iberdrola. Instead, the squad is largely made up of players from the 2021/22 Barcelona (10), Real Madrid (7), and Atletico Madrid (3) squads. This Euros will determine if they are true contenders or pretenders.
Star Player: Alexia Putellas. In case you didn’t know she Ballon d’Or and pretty much every major award in 2021.
Young Player to watch: Athenea del Castillo. 20-year-old forward announced herself on the international scene at the Arnold Clark Cup where she was named MVP of the tournament despite only playing two games and not being named in the original squad.
Group B Prediction
Rosie: 1. Denmark, 2. Spain, 3. Germany, 4. Finland
El: 1. Germany, 2. Spain, 3. Denmark, 4. Finland
Marran: 1. Spain, 2. Denmark, 3. Germany, 4. Finland
Group C
Netherlands
Though the victors in 2017, the Netherlands don’t enter the competition as favourites to win. They changed head coach post-Olympics to Mark Parsons and have struggled a bit in his early tenure. Despite that, the Netherlands have shown up as a strong tournament team in the last three major tournaments and only lost to the formidable USWNT. The squad is strong squad especially in the forward positions and the midfield. Oranjeleeuwinnen fans will be excited to see the return of midfielder Danielle van de Donk after an ACL injury, as well as the introduction of fellow Lyon teammate and UWCL winner Damaris Eggurola at defensive midfield. They may not even be the favourite to win within their group having drawn Sweden, but they weren’t pipped to win in 2017 either – can they do it again?
Star Player: Vivianne Miedema. This one kind of goes without saying, as she is the leading goal scorer with 92 goals in 108 matches. If she’s not scoring she’ll be drawing enough attention that will mean at least one of her teammate will be in space.
Young Player to watch: Lynn Wilms. 21-year-old marauding full back, she will get forward to overload the left-side to link up with Wolfsburg teammate Jill Roord.
Portugal
Portugal initially didn’t qualify for the competition, losing 1-0 on aggregate to Russia in the play offs. However, with the sanctions put in place by UEFA on Russia due to the war in Ukraine they were unable to compete and so Portugal was drafted in. The majority of Portugal’s squad play in their domestic league for Benfica (9), Sporting CP (6) and Braga (5). However, the Portuguese league is still in its infancy with Benfica only starting a women’s team four years ago.
Portugal will be hoping for a result against Switzerland but will have a difficult time getting any points from the Netherlands or Sweden. It’s probably fair to say that it would take a small miracle for them to make it out of the group stage considering their opponents.
Star Player: Jéssica Silva. My insider Portuguese info says former Lyon forward plays some of the most beautiful football for Portugal.
Young Player to watch: Francisca “Kika” Nazareth. The 19-year-old Benfica wunderkind made her debut for Portugal at 17 and has scored 31 goals in 60 appearances for Benfica.
Sweden
Sweden are a fantastic team stacked with world class players, the highest ranked team in the competition. Yet they haven’t won a major championship since 1984 (the first ever women’s Euros). Runners up in both the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, third place in the 2019 World Cup, they’ll be hoping this is finally their time to take the top spot. Their squad contains players from across the top clubs in the English, German, French, Spanish, US, Italian and Swedish leagues – a nice contrast to many of the top women’s squads whose players play mostly in their home countries. Balance is also seen in the quality of the players – there’s no real weak spot across the team and they have formidable defenders (Eriksson, Glas, Ilestedt), midfielders (Seger, Asllani, Angeldahl) and attackers (Blackstenius, Rolfö, Jakobsson).
Star Player: Hanna Glas. One of, if not the greatest fullback in the world.
Young Player to watch: Hanna Bennison. 19-year-old midfielder has been highly touted the best young player in the world, she has a great group of older players around her to help her develop into a world class player.
Switzerland
Switzerland’s place in the Euros was decided in dramatic fashion through a penalty shootout versus the Czech Republic in the second leg of the play off. For everyone’s interest or not, I was listening this early in the morning driving to work and it was stressful. As with Portugal, making it beyond the group stage will be a challenge with Netherlands and Sweden. Switzerland has some fantastic players including Barcelona’s Crnogorčević, PSG’s Bachmann, and Arsenal’s Wälti and Maritz. They’re a squad with good defensive ability and a stable backbone of experienced players, and could certainly cause some trouble for the predicted top two teams in the group.
Star Player: Lia Wälti. The captain and anchor of the team, she plays defensive midfield and centre-back depending on where her skills are required most.
Young Player to watch: Riola Xhemaili. 19-year-old midfielder plays at SC Frieburg in the Frauen Bundesliga and already has 13 appearances and 2 goals for the national team.
Group C Predictions
Rosie: 1. Sweden, 2. Netherlands, 3. Switzerland, 4. Portugal
El: 1. Sweden, 2. Netherlands, 3. Switzerland, 4. Portugal
Marran: 1. Sweden, 2. Netherlands, 3. Switzerland, 4. Portugal
Group D
Belgium
Belgium is coming into this tournament off the back of back-to-back wins in World Cup qualifying and a penalty shoot-out win, in the final of the Pinatar Cup. With these results, the Red Flames will be feeling confident against their equally strong opponents in the group stage. However, but they cannot take their eye off the target as the losses again both Norway and England showed there’s still weaknesses to be fixed. This group will be challenge for Belgium, but they are more than capable of getting out of it if they play good football and results come their way.
With veterans Janice Cayman, Tessa Wullaert and Tine De Caigny’s combined 147 goals, Belgium will score on their opponents. The real question Belgium will need to answer is if their defence is can keep goals out on the other end.
Star Player: Tessa Wullaert. Capitan and all-time leading goal scorer she has recently signed with newly formed Eredivisie side Fortuna Sittard.
Young Player to watch: Amber Tysiak. The 22-year-old 5’10” centre-back scored two goals in their warm up match against Luxembourg and will be an aerial threat from set pieces.
France
France has to be one of if not the favourite team to go all the way this year. With a qualification process that consisted of 7 wins and a draw, and 0 conceded goals, France cannot be looking stronger. Currently on an 11-game win streak, going back to September 2021, France doesn’t seem to know how to lose and who can be surprised with the squad they’ve currently got to play with. The biggest obstacle France will need to overcome is themselves having never made it past the Quarter-finals of the Euros and only two Semi-finals in major tournament history despite all their talent and domestic success. Diacre and her France side will need to step up this summer to silence any doubters.
With captain Wendie Renard and her 131 caps, the highest in this squad, the team are going to be looking at her more than ever, with 61 more caps than the next highest player, they are going to look at her for leadership and also goals. She’s got the most goals with 33 out of this current group, they’ll need her, whilst they hope to get 27-year-old Diani and 23-year-old Katoto firing on all cylinders. With both women scoring a combined 31 goals for PSG this season, everyone in France will be hoping for that kind of outcome from this centre-forward pairing.
Star Player: Wendie Renard. Possibly the tallest player in women’s football how many times has she scored a header from a corner to win a match for France?
Young-ish Player to watch: Marie-Antoinette Katoto. The 23-year-old PSG forward will be many peoples pick for golden boot. She has scored an absurd 108 goals for PSG (113 apps) and 25 goals for France (30 apps).
Iceland
With only 2 losses in the last 11 games, Iceland looks very strong on paper. They are a small but mighty nation with stars like Juventus’ Gunnarsdóttir and West Ham’s Brynjarsdóttir. Iceland’s weakness is that when they’ve come up against higher ranked teams, like the USA and Netherlands, they have struggled to keep up. Despite being underdogs, they have been drawn in a favourable group and they will believe that on their day they can get a result against both Belgium and Italy.
The two players who may shine the brightest for Iceland are Bayern Munich’s Karólína Vilhjálmsdóttir and Wolfsburg’s Sveindís Jónsdóttir, who can take the team up a level and be the goal scoring threats Iceland need.
Star Player: Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir. The captain gave birth to her son in November and was back on the pitch much to the delight of Icelandic fans in March.
Young Player to watch: Sveindís Jónsdóttir. 21-year-old forward she will be one of the fastest players at the Euros, she also has a long throw in which is always fun.
Italy
The Azzurri will be hoping to replicate the men’s success in England going all the way to Wembley and stamping their mark on European Football. The Italian squad has a strong Juventus contingent which is the most represented club at #WEURO2022 with a total of 18 players. They are led by Juve centre-back Sara Gama who guided them to the Quarter-finals of the 2019 World Cup. Italy will be hoping to improve on their Euro 2017 campaign, where they failed to make it out of a group with Germany and Sweden. Although Group D is ultra competitive with fellow FIFA Top 20 teams Belgium, France, and Iceland, Italy will be liking their chances of getting out this time around.
Star Player: Cristiana Girelli. The Juve forward has a knack for scoring goals in big games such as the Champions League or World Cup
Young Player to watch: Arianna Caruso. 22-year-old midfielder is the second youngest player in the squad and has been a standout for Juve this season. Look for her starting in the midfield with Giugliano, Cernoia, and Galli.
Group D Predictions
Rosie: 1. France, 2. Italy, 3. Belgium, 4. Iceland
El: 1. France, 2. Italy, 3. Iceland, 4. Belgium
Marran: 1. France, 2. Italy, 3. Iceland, 4. Belgium