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EILEEN GLEESON’S IRELAND side has been drawn against France, European champions England and Sweden in League A, Group A3 of the Women’s European Qualifiers.
The Girls in Green will face a tough task to make it to the finals in 2025 in Switzerland.
The home-and-away fixtures will take place in April, June and July and will decide the qualification places and play-off berths. The top two teams will qualify directly for next summer’s finals tournament, with the third and fourth placed sides proceeding to play-offs from October.
Prior to last week’s 2-0 defeat to Wales, Ireland had been unbeaten since the World Cup: a 2-1 loss to Canada following a narrow opening reversal to Australia.
After the exit of Vera Pauw, Eileen Gleeson took the managerial role as an interim position, but positive results in the Nations League left the decision to make her permanent an easy one.
Uefa.
Uefa.
Ireland were in Pot 4 for today’s draw. They now join the teams ranked third, fourth and fifth in the world in Group A3. For context, Ireland are 24th.
France were the second-highest top seeds they could have drawn, behind world champions Spain.
England are the reigning European champions, and runners-up from last summer’s World Cup. Sweden are the Olympic champions. All three sides were semi-finalists at Euro 2022.
The seedings for the draw were directly linked to recent Nations League form. England finished second in their group, so were among the standout teams in Pot 2, while Sweden were consigned to play-offs to retain their League A status.
“There’s no getting away from it, it is probably the hardest group any Irish side has been placed in before,” Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson said after the draw.
“And that’s the general feeling around the auditorium as well, I got plenty of looks from other coaches with relief on their faces. It is what it is. It’s basically a Euro semi-final for us in every game. It’s a challenge, there is excitement.”
Fixture details will be confirmed tomorrow.
The full Euro 2025 qualifying draw is as follows:
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LEAGUE A
Group A1
Netherlands
Italy
Norway
Finland
Group A2
Spain
Denmark
Belgium
Czechia
Group A3
France
England
Sweden
Republic of Ireland
Group A4
Germany
Austria
Iceland
Poland
LEAGUE B
Group B1
Switzerland
Hungary
Turkey
Azerbaijan
Group B2
Scotland
Serbia
Slovakia
Israel
Group B3
Portugal
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Northern Ireland
Malta
Group B4
Wales
Croatia
Ukraine
Kosovo
LEAGUE C
Group C1
Belarus
Lithuania
Cyprus
Georgia
Group C2
Slovenia
Latvia
North Macedonia
Moldova
Group C3
Greece
Montenegro
Andorra
Faroe Islands
Group C4
Romania
Bulgaria
Kazakhstan
Armenia
Group C5
Albania
Estonia
Luxembourg
- Additional reporting from Emma Duffy.
Written by Declan Bogue and posted on the42.ie. The Journal publishes the biggest breaking news in Irish and international sport but for all of The 42′s insightful analysis and sharp sportswriting, subscribe here.
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In the real world, there’s no such thing as a ‘tough group’ or a ‘group of death’…. like these are qualifiers to see who progresses to the ‘competition’ stage….. if you can’t hold your own at the qualifying stage there’s zero point going any further
@Ken Mc Carthy: Strange logic from a strange person. This is demonstrably a tough group. We have been drawn with the 3rd, 4th and 5th ranked teams in the world in European Championship qualifying group. And if had drawn the same three teams in the World Cup finals, it would still be a tough group. Correct though, it’s not the group of death from our perspective, but probably is for the other three teams.
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