The national football women know their opponents in the group stage of Euro 2022, from 6 to 31 July in England. The Red Flames will meet France from pot 1, Italy from pot 2 and Iceland from pot 4. National coach Ives Serneels can return satisfied from Manchester: this is quite a group with opportunities. “We can be satisfied. The ambitions are the second round.”
The 4 groups:
Not the Netherlands, England or Germany
Football is coming home again next year, in England. The glitzy show today already gave a taste. The English organizers want to ensure a “legacy”. “Football must become a vehicle for social change,” was the message.
No expense has been spared. Many beautiful names took part in the draw ceremony. Former top players such as Anja Mittag, Camille Abily, Kelly Smith, Katrine Pedersen and Lotta Schelin, but also top football players such as Ruben Dias (Manchester City) and Juan Mata (Manchester United).
They ensured that Belgium ended up in Group D with France and Italy and Iceland. Belgium is number 19 in the world, France number 5, Italy number 14 and Iceland number 16.
Belgium missed out on title defender Netherlands and top countries Germany and England (the host country moreover) from pot 1. Germany won 8 of the 12 European Championship editions, England already played the final twice. France is the quarter-finalist of the European Championship 2017 and World Cup 2019. From pot 4, Russia would have been even better than Iceland, but we can’t really complain about that.
The Flames open on July 10 against Iceland, France follows on July 14, and Italy on July 18, also quarter-finalist at the 2019 World Cup. The first and third match are in Manchester, the second in Rotherham.
To determine the division of the pots, UEFA looked at the results of the European Championship 2017 (preliminary and final round), the 2019 World Cup (preliminary and final round) and the European Championship 2021 (preliminary round).
The European Championship will be played with 16 countries, the top 2 will advance to the quarter-finals. And that is the ambition of our women’s team.
Belgium will play Iceland on July 10, France will follow on July 14 and Italy on July 18.
England-Austria opener at Old Trafford
Defending champions The Netherlands plays in group C against Sweden, Russia and Switzerland. Group A consists of organizer England, Norway, Austria and Northern Ireland. Group B is formed by Germany, Spain, Denmark and Finland.
The European Championship in England will be the 13th edition of the European women’s title fight. The tournament was initially scheduled for the summer of 2021 but, just like the European Championships for men, was postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic.
It will be played in 10 stadiums and the final will take place in the mythical Wembley. The opening match is England-Austria at Manchester United’s Old Trafford.
The Red Flames qualified by winning their qualifying group for Switzerland. That also went through the play-offs afterwards. The Belgian women took part in the European Championship once before. In 2017 they fell in the group stage in the Netherlands.
National coach Serneels: “Have to be satisfied”
Ives Serneels was a satisfied Belgian coach: “We have to be satisfied. This is an open group with possibilities. We wanted to avoid England and Spain. We succeeded, and you know that they are all strong teams.”
“For example, we drew the strongest team in pot D (Iceland). But you are going to play a European Championship and then you know that you will have to go full every game to get something.”
The upcoming opponents are no strangers to Serneels. “We have already fought France in the past. We also had Iceland in our group a few years ago and we played against Italy twice during the previous World Cup campaign. We know the teams.”
Belgium won and lost against Italy 3 years ago. The same 4 years ago in exhibition games against France.
In 2017, Belgium was dropped as a European Championship debutant in the group stage. Serneels is now raising the bar. “You have to try to take steps forward and then the ambition is now the second round. We look at it match by match. At the previous European Championship we took a nice win against Norway and we lost 2 times narrowly. If you can do better now in terms of result, then you have a good chance of reaching the second round.”
Serneels: “Advantage for us that we can play the European Championship a year later”
De Caigny: “This should be a feasible group”
| pot 1 | pot 2 | pot 3 | pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Sweden | Denmark | Iceland |
| The Netherlands | Spain | Belgium | Russia |
| Germany | Norway | Switzerland | Finland |
| France | Italy | Austria | Northern Ireland |
