England will face a re-run of the Women’s 2023 World Cup final after drawing Spain in the 2025 Nations League, while Scotland face a tricky test against Germany.
England will face the world and Nations League champions for the first time since the August 2023 World Cup final, when they were beaten 1-0 by Olga Carmona’s first-half strike.
The Lionesses will also play Belgium – who stunned Sarina Wiegman’s side in the last edition of the tournament with a 3-2 win in Leuven last October – and Portugal, who they have not played in a competitive game since 2017.
Scotland face a tough test against Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, while Wales will come up against Italy, Denmark and Sweden.
Northern Ireland will face Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania in Group B1, while the Republic of Ireland are drawn with Turkey, Slovenia and Greece in Group B2.
Wiegman: Something to prove in ‘exciting’ group
England manager Sarina Wiegman:
“It’s an exciting draw. We have Spain – a top, world-class team – which I think is exciting because it’s another opportunity to play at that level.
“It’s really good that we play Belgium, because in the last Nations League we lost when we played them away and we really underperformed. We can prove to ourselves now that we can do much better than that in the two games. I’m happy with that one, they’re tough.
“Portugal are a very talented team. We played them before we went to the World Cup and we drew with them. We had a lot of the ball but we couldn’t score and they were very dangerous on the counter-attack. They have a lot of technical players.
“There are different opponents and I’m really looking forward to it because we’ll be challenged in different areas of the game, and of course we’ll give them challenges too.”
When is the Nations League?
- Matchdays 1 and 2: February 19-26 2025
- Matchdays 3 and 4: April 2-8
- Matchdays 5 and 6: May 28-June 3
- Semi-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs: October 22-28
- Final and third-place play-off: November 26-December 2
The draw in full…
League A
- Group A1: Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Scotland
- Group A2: France, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland
- Group A3: Spain, England, Belgium, Portugal
- Group A4: Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Wales
League B
- Group B1: Poland, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania
- Group B2: Republic of Ireland, Turkey, Slovenia, Greece
- Group B3: Finland, Serbia, Hungary, Belarus
- Group B4: Czech Republic, Ukraine, Croatia, Albania
League C
- Group C1: Slovakia, Faroe Islands, Moldova, Gibraltar
- Group C2: Malta, Georgia, Cyprus, Andorra
- Group C3: Luxembourg, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechstenstein
- Group C4: Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Lithuania
- Group C5: Israel, Bulgaria, Estonia
- Group C6: Kosovo, Latvia, North Macedonia