Nine days to go: Nine reasons to get excited about Euro 2022 | OneFootball

It is a new week and it is now just nine days until Euro 2022, the Women’s European Championships, gets underway in England.

So here are nine reasons to get very excited indeed.

A how many horse race?!

“I think there are many favourites for this tournament and we are one of them,” England boss Sarina Wiegman said last week.

And who can argue? Six of FIFA’s ten top ranked sides in the world will be in action in England and they will all have their eyes on the big prize. That holders Netherlands, with Vivianne Miedema up front, are probably outsiders tells you all you need to know.

Groups of Death?

With just four groups, the competition is stacked from the get-go.

Denmark will be aiming to upset Germany and Spain in Group B, which also features 2005 semi-finalists Finland, who boast Linda Sällström and her 50 international goals.

Group D won’t be any easier, with Iceland the highest-ranked side from pot four joining France, Italy and Belgium.

England look like the big favourites in Group A but will come up against Norway, where Ada Hegerberg is backed up by Barcelona star Caroline Graham Hansen and Chelsea midfielder Guro Reiten, as well as Austria and debutants Northern Ireland.

And then there’s Group C, where holders Netherlands meet previous winners Sweden and two rising nations in Switzerland and Portugal.

The best in the business

Vivianne Miedema, Alexia Putellas, the three aforementioned Norwegians, an England squad stacked with household names, Germany’s next generation, the French defence led by Wendie Renard and Marie-Antoinette Katoto in attack, Italy’s Barbara Bonansea and Cristiane Girelli side by side up front.

Most of the biggest names in the women’s game, from all across Europe, will be in action and they will want to make their mark at the most-watched Euros of all time.

Next generation

Katoto has 24 goals in 29 France appearances but this will be her first international tournament and she could light the whole thing up.

She’s not alone.

Lauren Hemp is England’s youngest outfield player and perhaps their most dangerous after an incredible season with Manchester City. Jule Brand and Lena Oberdorf are Germany’s youngest players, three years after the latter became their youngest ever to play at a World Cup, and are already huge names.

And then there’s Clàudia Pina, 20, who has already broken into the star-studded Barcelona setup and scored a league goal every 87 minutes in 2021/22. The future is now.

First-time

Northern Ireland are the only nation playing at the Euros for the first time this summer.

Can they make the most of it?

Sold-out Wembley to make history

The final, on 31 July, is on course to be the most attended game, men’s and women’s, in European Championships history.

Tickets for the Wembley showpiece sold out within minutes and an attendance crowd would surpass the 79,115 who watched Spain’s men’s team beat the Soviet Union in their 1964 final in Madrid.

Around 500,000 fans — more than double the record set in 2017 — are expected to attend the tournament.

Kits

Who doesn’t love a new kit? There are plenty on show this summer and they aren’t the same as the ones worn by the men’s sides of the national teams in action.

Isn’t that superb?

Three fascinating teams

Three big names, three very different stories.

Germany won six Euros in a row before 2017 but a very new generation faces a challenge after two disappointing tournaments in a row. Can Spain live up to the incredible exploits of Barcelona? And will England, as hosts, win a first major trophy in the women’s game?

Last shot?

This is likely to be a last major tournament for some giants of the game.

Jill Scott and Ellen White, 35 and 33 respectively, stick out for England but even they have nothing on 39-year-old Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl and her 37-year-old captain Caroline Seger.

Between them the pair have runners-up medals at the World Cup and Olympics and bronze medals from previous Euros. One last shot at glory?