ZURICH — England will have been quietly delighted with the half of the draw they landed in after finishing the Euro 2025 group stages as runners-up.
A potential route to the final of Germany in the quarter-finals and Spain in the last four has been avoided, with the Lionesses facing Sweden for a place in the semis on Thursday night.
That will be a rematch of the historic semi-final of Euro 2022, when England won 4-0 at Bramall Lane. It was the night of Alessia Russo’s famous backheel as Sarina Wiegman’s side reached Wembley, where they went on to beat Germany.
England have, of course, faced Sweden twice since, with both games ending as a draw in qualifiers for this European Championship.
England’s semi-final opponents
Should the Lionesses progress, they will face Italy in Geneva on Tuesday, 22 July.
Italy got there in the most dramatic of circumstances, with a 90th minute winner from Cristiana Girelli to beat Norway 2-1.
The Norwegians were left to rue another Ada Hegerberg missed penalty – her second of the tournament – as Italy made it past the quarters for the first time since 1997.
Andrea Soncin’s side have been on a slightly strange journey since.
What to know about Italy
For almost 20 years, Italy faded into the wilderness again until the summer of 2019, when they rocked the World Cup in France, topping their group and beaten by the Netherlands – the eventual finalists – in the quarters.
Any momentum from that tournament was quickly lost. At both Euro 2022 and the 2023 World Cup, they crashed out at the group stages.
Soncin’s arrival in 2023 has been central to their revival and while they will still be a huge underdog against England or Sweden, they are in with their best chance of reaching a European Championship final for the first time since they finished as runners-up in both 1993 and 1997.
Soncin largely operates with a 3-5-2 and Italy are probably at their strongest out wide, where they will be looking to exploit the gaps left by either Sweden or England’s attacking full-backs.
They reached the knockouts by beating Belgium 1-0 in their opening game, before drawing 1-1 with Portugal and losing their final game 3-1 to world champions Spain.
Key players
Juventus forward Girelli is undoubtedly Italy’s biggest threat in attack and their top scorer at the Euros, while there is also huge excitement around Giulia Dragoni – once described as a “Little Messi”.
Dragoni featured at the last World Cup at the age of just 16. Cecilia Salvai has been key at centre-back and would be a fascinating match-up against the physicality of Alessia Russo.
Italy’s team are based almost entirely in Serie A Femminile, with the exception of Arianna Caruso, who is Georgia Stanway’s Bayern Munich teammate.
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