Match Centre: France v England

Written by:

Nicholas Veevers

FULL TIME

UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Group D

Saturday 05 July, 08:00 PM Stadion Letzigrund

0 0

HT: 0 - 0

All the latest news, previews, tickets and match details ahead of the Lionesses' UEFA Women's EURO 2025 group game with France in Zurich

Preview Live Match Report

France v England
Group D, UEFA Women's EURO 2025
8pm BST, Saturday 5 July 2025
Stadion Letzigrund, Zurich, Switzerland

Lionesses captain Leah Williamson in action against France in our last meeting with them in June 2024

France in profile

Nickname: Les Bleues
Coach: Laurent Bonadie
Captain: Wendie Renard
FIFA Women's World Cup best performance: Fourth in 2011
UEFA Women's EURO best performance: Semi-finals in 2022
Last encounter: France 1-2 England, 4 June 2024

Match Stats v France

● England have won three of their last six matches against France in all competitions (L3), more than they’d won in their first 21 games against them (W2 D9 L10). Following a 2-1 win in June 2024, the Lionesses are looking to win back-to-back games against Les Bleus for the first time since November 1974.

● There has been two previous meetings between France and England at the UEFA Women’s EURO, with Les Bleus winning 3-0 in the group stage in 2013 while the Lionesses won 1-0 in the 2017 quarter-final thanks to a goal from Jodie Taylor.

● Following their 2-1 win over France in qualifying for this competition back in June last year, England will be looking to win back-to-back matches against them for the first time since November 1974.

● England come into the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 as reigning champions, winning the 2022 edition on home soil. No reigning champion has ever lost their first game at the next tournament (W7 D5), though the last three have all drawn – Germany in 2013 (0-0 vs Netherlands) and 2017 (0-0 vs Sweden) and Netherlands in 2022 (1-1 vs Sweden).

● The Lionesses have kicked off each of their last four major tournaments with a win (6-0 v Scotland at EURO 2017, 2-1 v Scotland at the 2019 World Cup, 1-0 v Austria at EURO 2022, 1-0 v Haiti at the 2023 World Cup), since losing to France in their first game at the 2015 FIFA World Cup (1-0).

● England are looking to become the third European team to reach the final of three consecutive major tournaments (World Cup/EUROs) after Germany (3, 1995-1997 and 5, 2001-2009) and Norway (5, 1987-1993).

● The Lionesses won at least three more games and scored eleven more goals than any other European nation across EURO 2022 and the 2023 FIFA World Cup (W11 D1 L1 F35 A6).

● France haven’t lost their opening game at any of their last nine major tournaments (EUROs/World Cup – W8 D1), since losing their opening group game at the 2003 FIFA World Cup (2-0 v Norway).

● France haven’t lost any of their last ten group stage matches at the UEFA Women’s EURO (W6 D4) since suffering a 5-1 defeat to Germany in 2009.

● France come into this tournament on an eight-game winning streak across all competitions, their longest winning run since securing 16 consecutive victories between June 2021 – July 2022.

● Since England lost 3-0 to France in their final group game in 2013, they’ve won ten of eleven matches at the UEFA Women’s EURO, with the exception a defeat against a Netherlands side managed by Sarina Wiegman in 2017 (0-3 in the semi-final).

● England have won their most recent meeting with each of their UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 Group D opponents: France in June 2024 (2-1), Netherlands in December 2023 (3-2) and Wales (3-0 in August 2018). They are the only team that can boast that feat over their EURO 2025 fellow group members.

● France have played the most matches at the UEFA Women’s EURO without ever reaching a final (26), while only Italy (35) and Denmark (33) have played more games without winning the trophy.

● England manager Sarina Wiegman has an unblemished record at the UEFA Women’s EURO, winning 12 out of 12 matches with the Netherlands (6/6 in 2017) and England (6/6 in 2022). She’s the only manager with a 100 per cent win record in the competition, while only Tina Theune (13 wins in 15 games with Germany) has won more games at the tournament.

● Only two players created more chances at the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 than France’s Clara Matéo (13), while Matéo was directly involved in 25 goals in 20 league games in 2024-25 for Paris FC (18 goals, 7 assists), a total only two players could better across Europe’s big five leagues.

● At the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, England’s Beth Mead created the most chances (16) of any player, while she was involved in ten goals in total (six goals, four assists), a record by a player at a single major women’s tournament (World Cup/EURO) that Opta has on record since the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

● France are one of three teams (also Germany and Sweden) that have qualified for the quarter-finals of the UEFA Women’s EURO in all four editions since their introduction in 2009, but have only progressed once to the semi-finals, that was in the latest edition in 2022 (lost 1-2 v Germany).

● No team recorded more shots than France at the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 (108 – level with Germany) but only three teams had a worse shooting accuracy (42.0%).

● No player scored more goals in the 2025 UEFA Women’s Nations League group stage than Sandy Baltimore (five), who netted in each of France’s games between matches two and six. The versatile Chelsea player is the first to score in five straight outings for France since Marie-Antoinette Katoto between September and November 2021.