Spain, reigning world champions and winners of the first Nations League, Belgium and Portugal: these are Italy’s opposition in Group B for EURO 2025, scheduled from 2 to 27 July in Switzerland. This afternoon’s draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne laid out the groups under the watchful eye of FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, Marco Brunelli and Andrea Soncin, who after the good results collected in his first 15 months in the Azzurre dugout will try to take them as far as possible in his first continental tournament as Coach.

Soncin: “A very competitive group is waiting for us, we are focused on the journey, aware that every opponent in these competitions are extremely strong and organised. We will face three differing sides: we know Spain well, it will be a complicated game but we’ve already shown that we have the skills to cause them trouble. Belgium are a growing side, full of talent and with many players at Italian sides, whilst Portugal play modern football and can count on many individuals who are putting their best on display in the top European leagues. It will be a complicated journey but our rivals will be thinking this too and that attests to the work from these girls recently. We will go to Switzerland with faith in ourselves”.

Italy will play their opening game on 3 July 2025 in Sion against Belgium. The game against Portugal is scheduled for July 7 in Geneva whilst the Spain game is scheduled for July 11 in Bern. The Euros will begin on July 2 at St. Jakob-Park in Basel and will conclude with the final on July 27. There are eight host cities: Basel, Bern, Geneva, Zurich, St. Gallen, Lucerne, Sion and Thun. The first and second-placed sides from each group will go through to the quarter-finals, the semi-finals will be held in Geneva and Zurich on July 22 and 23.

THE OPPOSITION. Another 90 minutes against the Spaniards, second in the FIFA ranking behind the USA. The record from previous fixtures is kind to Italy who have won 12 of the last 20 games against them (Spain won three). Soncin’s side have already faced Montserrat Tomé’s girls three times (one win and one defeat in the Nations League, one draw in the friendly in October), and have not faced the other two Group B rivals during his time in the dugout. Belgium are 19th in the FIFA Ranking and were also in Italy’s EURO 2022 group, a fixture that they won to send Milena Bertolini’s side out of the tournament. In the previous 11 games against Belgim, Italy count six wins, a draw and four defeats (the latest being last year in the Arnold Clark Cup). The record against Portugal is more positive (22nd in the Ranking) as they’ve only won three of the 16 games, losing the other 13.

PRIZE MONEY AND TICKETS. UEFA has allocated a record-breaking sum as the prize money for the 14th edition of the competition. This morning, the Executive Committee made it official that as much as €41 million will be available to federations and players, as well as their home clubs, a 156% increase on the 2022 figure.

All 16 competing nations will receive a fixed participation grant of €1.8 million for qualifying for the tournament, which will account for 70% of the total prize money awarded. The remaining 30% will consist of performance bonuses with teams receiving €50,000 for a draw and €100,000 for a win in the group stages, as well as staggered bonuses for each knockout stage. Each participating federation will be required to award their players between 30% and 40% of the total payments received while the total benefit package for clubs will increase to €6 million.

Tickets have been available on the UEFA website (Swiss residents can use ticketcorner.ch) since October 1 and following today’s draw, 120,000 more have been put on sale. An official resale platform will be made available in spring 2025.

UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2025 – GROUPS

GROUP A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland
GROUP B: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, ITALY
GROUP C: Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden
GROUP D: France, England, Wales, Netherlands