WEURO 2025: England vs Wales Preview

The Lionesses face Wales in the Women’s Euros group stages next Sunday. Here’s a closer insight on how it could play out.

After scoring 4 goals against the Netherlands, England are aiming to secure a win against Wales to qualify for the knockouts. Player of the match Alessia Russo provided assists for Lauren James, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone. The bounce back from the France defeat was necessary to boost morale and encourage the team to fight for qualification. All eyes were on the referee in that game with an early Alessia Russo goal being ruled out by VAR for a controversial offside, sparking frustration for both fans and players.

However, qualification is not guaranteed for the Lionesses, as they face Wales, who are currently bottom of Group D. Despite going toe-to-toe with France, they suffered a 4-1 defeat to the group leaders, with the only goal for Wales being scored by Jessica Fishlock. France will more than likely take the top spot in Group D after securing two wins from two and scoring an impressive six goals so far in the tournament. 

The last time these two teams met was in August 2018 during World Cup qualification, in which England ran out 3-0 winners with goals from Toni Duggan, Jill Scott and Nikita Parris. England will be hoping for a comfortable win like in previous match-ups with Wales but will need to avoid any defensive lapses that Wales could capitalise on. Lauren James will be looking to continue her goalscoring form after a brace against the Netherlands on Wednesday. As for Wales, they will need to defend well and hope to break on the counterattack while England are on the attack, but the main goal will be to stop England’s talented attacking force from gliding past their defence - which could prove to be a challenging task.

The match is available to watch live on ITV1 at 8pm BST.