Women’s Euro 2025 Power Rankings: England’s Lionesses have work to do if they want to defend their continental crown

Despite representing such a small nation, Iceland have grown into a really solid women’s national team over the last few years. With a squad that contains players at clubs like Bayern Munich, Inter and Wolfsburg, there is a lot of top-level experience throughout the team, and Thorsteinn Halldorsson has done a good job of bringing all of that together since his appointment in 2021.

There have been promising campaigns, with them holding their own in the last edition of the Nations League and only failing to qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup due to a stoppage-time goal from the Netherlands, and some really encouraging performances in friendlies, such as the very competitive meetings with the U.S. just last week. They really do punch above their weight.

There is certainly reason to believe Iceland can take that next step and be a dangerous opposition for the top teams in the knockout stages of these big tournaments, but with them not winning a game at the Euros since 2013, they are never going to be categorised as anything more than a dark horse at the 2025 edition.

Another team under relatively new management, Denmark have been led by Andree Jeglertz since the end of last year’s World Cup and they’ve been quietly impressive under the five-time Swedish coach of the year.

In the Nations League, Denmark finished just a point behind Germany, having beaten them at home in the campaign’s opening round of fixtures. In Euro 2025 qualifying, it was only world champions Spain who pipped them to top spot, with Lucia Garcia’s stoppage-time winner in a 3-2 result over the Danes playing a big role in that outcome.

It’s fair to say that the draw gods were not fair to Denmark at the last Euros, pooling them with Spain, Germany and Finland. Surely the outcome for 2025 can only be kinder as Jeglertz looks to lead this side to a first deep run in major tournament since they reached the Euros final in 2017.

What level of hype will Italy get for this European Championship? After enjoying an historic, and watershed, run to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2019, there was a lot of expectation around them at Euro 2022, especially because they appeared to fall into a kind group. That they finished rock bottom of it with just one point from three games was a huge disappointment, then.

When that was followed up by a group-stage exit at last year’s World Cup, a change in the dugout was made and under new coach Andrea Soncin, there is reason for optimism again. Italy beat Spain in the Nations League last year, finished ahead of Sweden in their group and then topped Group A1 in Euro 2025 qualifying, ahead of the Netherlands and Norway. They are looking good.

Given what has happened to the Azzurre at their last two major tournaments, it’s understandable that some will be cautious with their predictions for them at Euro 2025. But as an exciting new generation meets a crop of talented veterans, they do feel like the pick of the dark horses.

It’s been a weird few years for France. After Corinne Diacre’s controversial reign finally came to an end before the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Herve Renard had little time to prepare for that tournament and then went into this year’s Olympics all-but-confirmed to be leaving after just over a year at the helm. At both events, France came up underwhelmingly short, twice losing in the quarter-finals.

This week, Les Bleues had their first international window under Laurent Bonadei, Renard’s former assistant, and had two very different results – but it never felt like these two games were about results. Through a 3-0 win over Jamaica and a 2-1 defeat to Switzerland, Bonadei deployed two very different line-ups in two different formations. It’s all about collecting information about his team at this point.

Still, France remain ranked among the elite nations on the continent ahead of Euro 2025, such is the talent that their squad oozes.

At the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the Netherlands were so close to knocking out eventual champions Spain, but spurned too many chances in their 2-1 defeat in extra-time in the quarter-finals. It was a really positive tournament for Andries Jonker’s side, the coach taking charge after a disappointing Euro 2022 under Mark Parsons. Jonker infused a talented and experienced squad with some bright young players and put them in a system to proved effective at both ends of the pitch. They were fun to watch.

Through a demanding year or so since that World Cup, the Dutch have been relatively consistent under Jonker, though they have endured a couple of disappointing results. Given some of the absentees they’ve had to cope without, such as Jill Roord and Vivianne Miedema, perhaps these are understandable. Overall, there is still a lot of evidence to suggest the 2017 winners can be a force at Euro 2025.

There is a lot of work for England to do between now and the start of Euro 2025 if they want to defend their continental crown. After winning that title and reaching the 2023 Women’s World Cup final, the Lionesses came up short in their bid to reach the Nations League final and then qualified second in their group for next summer’s tournament. These are not damning outcomes, with them still among Europe’s elite, but below the standard expected now from England.

The good news for Sarina Wiegman is that she has time. The weaknesses in her side were there for all to see in the October window, with both Germany and South Africa carving through their defence with ease. Wiegman has shown herself to be a superb problem-solver before, changing system at the World Cup to get to the final, and she’ll need to do so again in the next eight months to give England a real chance of winning Euro 2025.

Christian Wuck is just two games into his tenure as Germany boss, and yet it’s hard not to be excited about the potential of this team. The incisive and devastating nature in which they carved England apart at Wembley in October was thrilling, and although that result was followed up with a 2-1 defeat to Australia, it was not a particularly concerning loss given Wuck’s rotation and the emotional nature of Alex Popp’s final game for her country.

The past two years have been very strange for the eight-time European champions. Under Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, they reached the Euro 2022 final, where they were defeated only in extra-time, but then endured a group-stage exit at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. It was surely the biggest shock in competition history.

After that, Voss-Tecklenburg fell ill and took some time away from the job, until stepping away completely in November. Horst Hrubesch stepped in as interim and guided Germany through the Nations League, to the Olympics and then to a bronze medal. It’s been quite a rollercoaster.

That Olympic medal is evidence of the quality that this team can boast, no matter the circumstances around it, and the extra energy Wuck has brought to the table appears to already be having a positive impact.

Yes, Spain did just fall short at an Olympic Games where they were almost everyone’s favourite and yes, there are still questions about how good a coach Montse Tome is after some of her decisions made a serious impact on that outcome. However, it’s so hard not to pick La Roja as the front-runner for Euro 2025.

A quick run through the squad and you’ll see two players who have won two Ballons d’Or, with Aitana Bonmati joining Alexia Putellas on that total after winning her second successive Golden Ball this week, and a whole host of other star names who can win games almost single-handedly with a moment of quality.

Spain’s October results were not great, with draws against Canada and Italy hardly setting the world alight. But there was a fair bit of experimentation in the second line-up and a few key absentees, including Bonmati herself. If there is not more to get excited about in the next international break, then that could be a concern, but for now, the reigning world champions – and winners of this year’s Nations League tournament – have earned the right to be the favourite for Euro 2025.