A rather lenient draw at Euro-2022 for the Blue

The French women’s football team inherited a rather lenient group with Italy, Belgium and Iceland for Euro-2022, organized from July 6 to 31 in England, according to the draw made this Thursday in Manchester.

The French, placed in group D, will try to grab one of the first two places, synonymous with quarter-finals.

A revenge to take

Italy, progressing and quarter-finalist of the last World Cup, is the most serious opponent for France. Belgium, first in their qualifying group, have never made it through the group stage at Euro. Iceland reached the quarters in 1995 and 2014. Always in search of a first international title, the Blue have been subscribed to the quarters during the last three editions of the Euro. They stopped at this point also during their World Cup at home in 2019.

Rejuvenated and undefeated since April, Corinne Deacon’s team remains on two great successes in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup, the first at home against Estonia (11-0) on October 22, the second Tuesday in Kazakhstan (5 -0). England, host country, will face Austria, semi-finalist in 2017, in opening on July 6 at Old Trafford in group A, then Norway, titled in 1987 and 1993 and Northern Ireland, novice in phase final.

A reprogrammed Euro

The Dutch title holders, led by Barcelona European champions Viviane Miedema and Lieke Martens, will face Sweden, a finalist in the Tokyo Olympics this summer, against Russia and Switzerland in Group C. Group B is stronger with Germany, eight times titled, Denmark, finalist of the last edition, and Spain, with several Barcelona crowned European champions in club this year, and Finland.

The 31 matches of this Euro will take place in ten stadiums ranging from the small enclosure for women and U21 Manchester City (less than 5,000 seats) to the legendary Wembley, nearly 90,000 seats and host of the final. Originally scheduled for 2021, the Women’s Euro has been rescheduled after the Men’s Euro was postponed for one year due to the pandemic, so that the two competitions do not take place in the same year.