The UEFA Women's Euro 2025 became a real test for every top team around Europe, with the competitiveness of the tournament ever growing. Hence, it produced a lot of surprises and even gave the best-performing nations a run for their money. The competition also gave an indication that the gap between the heavyweights and minnows is fast decreasing in women’s football, especially in Europe. It led to some of the established nations in the sport to stumble at the group stages, or face elimination in the first round of the knockout stages.
Here are five top Teams that should have done better in UEFA Women's Euro 2025:
Norway
Norway had a lot of things riding on their shoulders entering the Women’s Euro 2025 after suffering group stage elimination in the past two editions and having a terrible Women’s World Cup two years ago. With this Euros being last for many of their prime stars of the current generation in a fastly ageing squad, the Norwegians were desperate to shake off their past suffering and make a decent account for themselves. Grouped with fellow Nordic nations Iceland and Finland, with hosts Switzerland, Gemma Grainger’s side were expected to win their group and they accomplished their goal by winning all the games at the stage to finally break their unwanted streak of early elimination in the competition.
However, it wasn’t as straightforward as it seems as they had to make a second-half comeback to win against the hosts in their opener, make another fightback against Finland and triumph in a 4-3 thriller against Iceland. Teething problems remained, but the squad at least made it to the quarterfinals. Yet that is where their journey ended frustratingly. Despite Ada Hegerberg equalising in the 66th minute, opponents Italy struck back just when the game was moving into extra-time with their star striker Cristina Girelli scoring the winner with her second of the evening. It was a big disappointment for the Norwegians not to have crossed the first stage in the knockouts of a major competition again and possibly the last opportunity they had to achieve something with the current generation.
Sweden
Similarly, Sweden’s current pack was hitting their prime and included some serial winners at the club level, so there was an expectation over them to make a steady run in the Women’s Euro 2025. It stemmed from their fascinating run to the semifinal stage of the Women’s World Cup two years ago, defeating competition favourites Japan and record winners USA on the way. Even though they failed to qualify for the Olympics last year, Peter Gerhardsson’s side made sure they entered the Euros with the best possible form, maintaining a sensational 15-game unbeaten run starting from the qualifiers. They kept the momentum in the group stage with wins over Denmark and Poland, but their headlining act was defeating record winners Germany by 4-1 in the group stage. It was a ruthless side from the Yellow and Blue that was not seen before, which saw them earn the darkhorse tag for the competition. Hence, Sweden was confident in facing the holders, England, in the quarterfinals, knowing that the Lionesses had started the tournament with a defeat despite bouncing back strongly with a 4-0 loss in this fixture in the last edition’s semifinal stage, still fresh in their minds.
The side also looked to have pulled off another statement victory over a giant when Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius got them 2-0 up inside 25 minutes with their rigorous pressing and counter-attacking play. However, England showed them why they have been the tournament winners by levelling the scores with back-to-back strikes at the death. Sweden still had the chance to win at various phases of a dramatic penalty shootout, but again fluffed it to suffer a bitter elimination from the contest. Despite the opposition being a holder who has enough experience to bail them out of such a situation, to lose a significant lead like this and lay the path for their exit by squandering winning penalties showed the failure of the team that had so much potential in them to make a title hunt. Considering the fact that they reached the semis last time with a lot less hype and with some of their top stars hitting the end of their international career at the 2027 Women’s World Cup, this was the time Sweden could have quenched their thirst to add a major silverware next to their only success of winning the 1984.
France
Another side that came into the Women’s Euro 2025 with a lot of hope is France, which has seen a steady rise in the last few years. Les Bleues had their best performance in Women’s Euro history by reaching the semifinals in 2022 and carried the progress under Hervé Renard, later on with the current coach Laurent Bonadei. The Frenchman took charge after a disappointing Olympics last year and oversaw an excellent Euro qualifiers campaign, even topping their group ahead of England. The finals were not going to be easy, as France were grouped with the Lionesses again alongside the Netherlands and Wales, with the added challenge of not having evergreen captain Wendie Renard and record goalscorer Eugenie Le Sommer by their side after the manager opted them out of the squad. Relying on the youth with less tournament experience in the squad is always tricky, but the side showed otherwise in an emphatic display in the group stage.
France stunned England to become the first side in Euro history to beat a holder in their first game of title defence with a rather comfortable 2-1 victory before thrashing debutant Wales 4-1. Their determination also showed when they came 2-1 down at halftime to humiliate Netherlands 6-2 at the end, ending as group winners and making them one of the competition favourites. Christian Wuck’s side was undoubtedly given the upper hand against Germany, with the latter also losing heavily in the last game and their belief only grew after Die Nationalelf went down inside 13 minutes, leading to Grace Geryoro’s opener from the spot. However, to everyone’s surprise, rather than going full force to finish off the game from such an advantageous position, they were pegged by the Germans with Sjoeke Nusken equalising five minutes later. The midfielder could have given more trouble to Bonadei’s side if her penalty hadn’t been saved by Peyraud-Magnin.
However, it was her opposite number, Ann-Katrin Berger, who took the spotlight in the tie with a heroic save in extra-time and then mastered a penalty shootout victory for the 10-player down team. France was left in disbelief as their fairytale story came to an abrupt end against a team, although record winners, who were not in their best form in the tournament. Furthermore, Les Blueus had a player advantage for over 105 minutes, yet they could not break the defence like they had done in their 12-goal haul in the group stage. Questions arose whether the team missed leadership that a Renard or Le Sommer could bring in a situation like this and also be the difference maker. Having such a great start to the competition, registering some huge results, France was left to ponder what went wrong for them despite having a talented crop of individuals.
Netherlands
Despite not having the edge in the knockouts, it is safe to say Norway, Sweden and France all took positives from the Women’s Euro 2025 and produced some stunning moments in the group stage. However, some teams failed to meet their expectations entirely with little to no impact in the competition. One of them is the Neṭherlands, which had doubts over them before the tournament started, mainly due to their non-showing against equally or higher-ranked opposition. Andries Jonker’s team was not helped by the fact that they were placed in a group of death alongside holders England and a spirited France team. Still, the Dutch were former winners of the tournament in 2017 and were expected to make a strong fight to make it to the knockouts. However, a 4-0 thrashing by holders England, in a game where they managed only one shot on target, decimated their early hopes of progressing after starting the competition with a win against Wales.
That left them with a do-or-die battle with France, with not only three points but winning with a greater margin would allow them to sneak into the top two amid other results. Initially, the Dutch thought they are pulling off a miracle with a 2-1 lead at half-time, but their defensive fragilities were again exposed as they conceded five unanswered goals in the second half to lose the game 6-2. The Netherlands had already lost the tournament when they conceded a stunning opener from Lauren James in the mauling in their second group game, with this result adding more salt to the wound. Jonker already announced his stepping down from the managerial role before the tournament, but he would not have imagined such a send-off to his four-year tenure at the national team.
Denmark
However, Denmark had the worst showing of all in the tournament after hitting a new low with their back-to-back group stage exit from the Women’s Euro this time without even collecting a point. This was the first time in the competition's history that the Danes lost all their games and conceded the second-most goals in a group stage. Drawn with Germany, Sweden and Poland, it was a difficult task for them to enter into the knockouts, but few would have predicted them finishing dead last in their group. Andreé Jeglertz’s team got off to the worst possible start with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Sweden, but seemed to be turning things around when they took a shock lead against the record winners, only to see them make an emphatic comeback in the second half. The most shocking result came in the final group game, where the Danes lost 3-2 to Poland with the debutants going 2-0 up inside 20 minutes and finding the winner in the 76th minute, dampening all chances of a comeback. It piled up the misery for the side that once reached the final of the competition back in 2017. With Pernille Harder now hitting 32, it is left to see how Denmark replaces her and recovers from this slump in the upcoming tournaments.
Also Read | UEFA Women’s Euro Winners and Runners-Up
