England Women get their Women’s Euro 2025 campaign underway against France Women on Saturday at 8pm (UK time).
England Women predicted lineup vs France Women
England Women (4-2-3-1): Hampton; Bronze, Williamson, Greenwood, Carter; Stanway, Walsh; Mead, Toone, Hemp; Russo.
Sarina Wiegman’s side are the defending European champions, having lifted the trophy at Wembley three years ago. But they have been given a tough group alongside France, the Netherlands and Wales.
England were slight favourites to finish top of Group D per Opta’s pre-tournament predictions from May. But they’ll need to get off to a winning start against France if that is to be the case.
This game will be broadcast live in the UK on ITV1 and is hosted at Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich.
England Women team news vs France Women
Wiegman named the same starting XI in all six of England’s matches at Women’s Euro 2022. So it will be interesting to see what she does this time around.
The biggest talking point about the team will be whether Lauren James starts. James missed the end of Chelsea’s treble-winning season through injury and wasn’t involved in England’s Uefa Nations League matches. But she came off the bench to provide an assist in the 7-0 win over Jamaica in England’s send-off match.
Given that was her only appearance for a few months, Wiegman may opt to keep James on the bench — rather than risk her. So Beth Mead, Ella Toone and Lauren Hemp should be the starting attackers to support Alessia Russo.
Chloe Kelly is another option, fresh from signing with Arsenal, but Hemp has impressed since her own return from injury. Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh are the go-to double pivot, with the latter playing the more defensive role.
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The other talking point will be left-back. Jess Carter started against Jamaica and generally did well, despite a couple of shaky moments. That will likely put her ahead of Niamh Charles, who didn’t have the best season in the Women’s Super League.
Hannah Hampton is England’s No.1 goalkeeper, with Mary Earps retiring from international football.
Can England retain their crown?
Only one nation have managed to retain their Women’s European Championship crown — the all-conquering Germany side that won six in a row between 1995 and 2013. England are second-favourites to win Women’s Euro 2025 but lifting the trophy at the end of July will be tough.
England have a tough group that they could genuinely fail to get out of. Even if they win the group, the Lionesses could potentially face Spain in the semi-finals. And England are very beatable.
Wiegman’s side haven’t won any of their past four games played outside of England, losing two and drawing two. Now, the last time they did win outside of England was against France in qualifying for Women’s Euro 2025 — which is a good omen.
But they still aren’t the same side as three years ago. England aren’t as free-scoring as they once were under Wiegman. Although they’ve scored at least five goals in three of their seven games this year, they’ve scored only one goal in three more. In fact, in their past 10 games, England have scored one goal or fewer five times. That only happened three times in England’s 10 games leading up to Women’s Euro 2022 — but that run also saw England hit double figures for goals twice.
And, of course, England would go on to score 22 goals at Women’s Euro 2022 — the most of any side in a single tournament. That averaged out to 3.67 goals per game. A year later, they scored just 13 goals in seven games at the Women’s World Cup — which was helped massively by a 6-1 group stage win over China. An average of 1.86 per match, it was a decrease by almost half. England need to up their goals again if they are to achieve a rare feat.