Football betting tips: Women's Euros
2pts e.w. Germany to win the Women's Euros at 5/1 (General 1/2 1-2)
2pts Germany to win Group C & England to win Group D at 3.53/1 (Sky Bet)
2pts e.w. Esther González to be top goalscorer at 11/2 (General 1/4, 1-3)
1.5pts e.w. Lea Schüller to be top goalscorer at 8/1 (Betfair, Paddy Power 1/4, 1-3)
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It’s that time again, the Women’s European Championships are just around the corner and in typical fashion, most of the attention is falling on the current holders.
Three years ago it was the Netherlands (who fell at the quarter-finals), seven years ago it was Germany (who fell at the quarter-finals) and now it’s England (who may or may not fall at the quarter-finals).
England are one of the big two expected to produce this summer along with current world champions, Spain, but is it safe to expect a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final?
Well...
Across the four groups/16 nations taking part this summer, each and every one has a weakness to be exploited - even the two favourites.
For Spain, they’re locked in a long-term battle with themselves and poor coaching, as we saw at the last Euros (under previous manager, Jorge Vilda) and at the Olympics last summer (under current coach, Montse Tomé).
When it comes to Spain, the talent they can put out on the pitch is enough to make them clear favourites at 2/1 but performances can too frequently let them down.
And for England, we’ve seen similarly seen some up and down form since their own Euros triumph three years ago, but maybe it’s best to look at the groups individually to really get into what could happen this summer.
Group A
Something of the underachievers group, that all the other nations will be frustrated they haven’t been drawn into, Group A is home to Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Finland – and we can commonly think of them as the Winter Olympians.
Norway, having won the Euros and World Cup before are the squad with the greatest pedigree and arguably, best players available but their form has stunk up the place like a wedge of Stilton left on a radiator.
Could they go on a mazy run, thumping every other team in the group and spectacularly crash out in the knock outs? Yes. Will they? Don’t bet on it.
We also have tournament hosts, Switzerland who likewise wouldn’t know good form if it was floating in their fondue pot, a team without a win in their last eight competitive games and a coach who is determined to suck all the fun out of what could be a moderately interesting squad.
Iceland are technically the highest ranked nation in the group (14th to Norway’s 16th) and would be a good bet to qualify for the knockouts, but have gone almost a full calendar year without a win and have some pretty bad tournament luck.
Finally, we have Finland who I quite like as an outsider, the lowest ranked nation in the group (26th in the world), Finland do at least posses more depth across the pitch than Iceland and have better form coming into the Euros, albeit because they’ve been playing in the second/B tier of the Nations League.
You won’t be finding the tournament winner in Group A, nor the top goalscorer, but it’s there for the taking and will probably provide some chaos and very few safe bets.
A conservative finishing order? Norway, Iceland, Finland, Switzerland.
Group B
Group B is home to Portugal, Belgium, Italy and our first real favourite: Spain – and is a good place to start if you’re planning a week-long holiday.
Spain, of course, are the heavy favourites this summer and despite their unpredictability can boast not just a squad stacked with talent but a squad stacked with goalscorers, and when they’re good, oh, they’ve very good as can be seen with recent drubbings of both Portugal and Belgium.
In fact, their recent 7-1 in Vigo might have just broken Portugal, but more on that in a minute.
If you’re looking for a tournament top goalscorer, La Roja might just be where you’ll find her, as said ahead of the UWCL final, Clàudia Pina is in rippingly good form for club and country.
In addition, ESTHER GONZÁLEZ has scored in three of her last four Spain games and has been pretty unstoppable in the NWSL where she plays her domestic football, and it’s easy to imagine her getting in, scoring heavily against Spain’s group opposition and those goals carrying her through to the golden boot.
After an impressive 1-1 draw at home to England, Portugal pulled off a 1-0 win away to Belgium before conceding 20 goals in their next four games, letting in 11 against Spain, six versus England and three at home to Belgium.
Indeed, the 7-1 hammering by Spain looks to have completely unseated a team that had been doing well at grinding out performances. Portugal could yet settle in time for the Euros but with Spain up first, they could also become the group's team to target.
Similarly, Belgium come in as a team that can put out some good performances, including a recent 3-2 at home to England, but the Red Flames struggle for consistency and too often get boxed into corners and would not be good value.
Rounding out the group is Italy who have found much needed stability under their current coach, Andrea Soncin with the highlight of his tenure being an early 3-2 win over Spain in Galicia.
At their best when attacking, Italy can sometimes struggle to get up to the right gear but have generally done well to keep pace with their opposition, maybe not about to go all the way in Switzerland, the Azzurre would be a good bet to get out of the group and even dispatch with a Group A opponent in the first knock-out.
As for a likely finishing order? Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal.
Group C
Another group, another favourite in tow, this time it’s eight-time European champions GERMANY who have been drawn with debutantes Poland, 2017 runners-up Denmark and inaugural Euros champions Sweden.
This is the group of death.
After the worst World Cup campaign in their history, Germany rebounded with an unlikely Olympic bronze (beating Spain in the third-place match) before switching from interim coach Horst Hrubesch to permanent, never before coached a women’s team, Christian Wück.
As for Wück’s first game in charge? Well, Germany scored three times in the first half hour and ran out 4-3 winners at Wembley and, save for a couple of friendly blips, have pretty consistently scored.
Indeed, I mention the 4-3 because it feels a little typical of what to expect from his team: goals but questionable to no defending, but in Switzerland, those goals should really be enough to see Germany through to the latter stages.
The German team is entirely top-heavy and ten of the 12 midfielders/attackers called up have all scored for them this calendar year alone and, like with Spain, it’s easy enough to expect them to gallop through the group stage, scoring for fun.
And if you’re looking for a potential top goalscorer? Might I suggest LEA SCHÜLLER, the Bayern Munich attacker has been in increasingly strong form over the last season, producing some of her best on the regular and, look, she just loves a header.
Despite boasting one of the best attackers in European football in Ewa Pajor – it’s a lazy comparison but yes, the female Robert Lewandowski – Poland seriously lack depth and experience and while I could talk about how impressive they were in their play-off to qualify for this, their first ever major tournament, I’ll just say it will be a real uphill battle for them in Switzerland and move on to the next.
Just 31 days after losing 6-1 to Sweden, an uncharacteristically brutal loss for Denmark, they will line up for their first Euro 2025 match against...Sweden, marking their third game against their neighbours this calendar year.
This is also right where the group could pivot if Denmark pull of a relative Scandi shock, relative because even though Sweden are winning the head-to-head by a ratio of about 2:1, you only have to go back two years to Denmark’s last win over their blue and yellow neighbours.
Like so many other teams at these Euros, Denmark have struggle for consistency recently but there’s also no doubt they’ve greatly improved under since changing managers to Andrée Jeglertz after the last (disappointing) World Cup.
Could they do it? Yes. Will they do it? Ask me again on July 5.
It’s hard to talk about Denmark’s chances without talking about Sweden, who are a cacophony of pros clashing with cons. There is possibly no other nation in the world who is as good a tournament team as Sweden, in nine previous Euros appearances, the Swedes have only missed out on the last four twice, making the final three times.
They’ve finished third at the last four World Cups and don’t forget the back-to-back Olympic silver medals in 2016 and 2020, simply put, Sweden can navigate a tournament, even when they’re not playing their best.
Which brings me an important point: Sweden aren’t playing their best right now, in fact, Sweden have been on a gradual slide since their last Olympic appearance, but still picked up bronze at the World Cup two years ago: the Sweden conundrum.
The Swedes come into the Euros with an ageing squad that’s gone somewhat stale under their current manager (who will be departing after the summer) which could lead them to lean on grinding wins out rather than styling them out.
There are goals in the Sweden team, but so too fragility, so, if you fancy Sweden, proceed with caution.
With all that context, no surprises for my predicted finishing order: Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland.
Group D
Of the six teams with the shortest outright odds for the Euros, three can be found in Group D in the shape of England (7/2), France (5/1) and the Netherlands (16/1) as well as tournament debutantes,
Wales who, if you’re feeling adventurous, currently share the longest odds (150/1) with Poland. I call it the fake group of death and here’s why...
Let’s start with ENGLAND, current holders, second favourites for the title and runners up for the last World Cup, England are very much favourites to top this group and frankly, have avoided a tougher test here.
While Sweden are the original dons of tournament navigation, it’s something the Lionesses have gotten very, very good at over the last decade, indeed at their last five tournaments (three World Cups and two Euros), England have reached the semis on every outing.
And as much as we’ve seen the Lionesses improve in terms of football played – very much helped by the increase in professionalism in England – the swelling confidence of each deep tournament run has built on itself too.
We can cross a tricky quarter-final if and when we come to it, but for now, England should be topping Group D and if you’re looking for a home-grown top-goalscorer? Alessia Russo has the best form coming into the tournament.
Jose Mourinho once called Arsene Wenger “a specialist in failure” but he might well have been talking about the French women’s national team: a team usually expected to do well but that so rarely does.
We’ve seen France’s golden generation bloom and retire and the best Les Bleues have ever done is a semi-final loss at the last Euros (or a fourth place finish at the 2011 World Cup).
Trying to leave the failures of the past behind, coach Laurent Bonadei opted to leave some of his best players behind for this tournament, favouring youth (and less tournament misery) but still, there is as ever, some incredible talent in the squad but as well we know, you simply can’t trust France.
Chelsea’s Sandy Baltimore is coming into this one in red hot form for her country though, so, maybe this is the year?
The last of the home nations to qualify for the Euros, the Welsh would have not enjoyed watching the draw and seeing the Dragons given a similar test to Poland in their first appearance.
Here for a good time, not necessarily a long time, it’s going to be tough for Wales but, again, like Poland, we did see some intelligent and resilient football during the play-offs.
Finally (and really finally as I’ve waffled for so long), we have the winners from 2017 who have been struggling to put their best foot forward since the 2019 World Cup.
An absolute pain to predict how they’re going to go from one game to the next, bouncing from good wins to bad performances, the Dutch might just be able to pick up some momentum facing Wales first and finishing with France, but don’t be surprised if they manage to snooker themselves along the way.
A group of question marks more than death, or answers, but a predicted finishing order of England, France (maybe), Netherlands and Wales.
To recap...
Your best outright shots are Spain, England and Germany and the three most likely respective top goalscorers are Esther González, Alessia Russo and Lea Schüller.
And remember, if you’re expecting both Spain and England to win their respective groups, they will meet in the semi-final in Zurich and avoid the winner of Group C who will be on the other side of the bracket.
Odds correct at 1145 BST (26/06/25)
Top goalscorer odds correct at 0920 BST (01/07/25)
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