difficult draw for Les Bleues with England, European champion, and Sweden, Olympic vice-champion

Finalist in the Nations League at the end of February, the French team now knows its route to opening the doors to the final phase of Euro 2025, in Switzerland (from July 2 to 27). The draw for the qualifiers was made on Tuesday, March 5, in Nyon (Switzerland). Hervé Renard’s players will face the English, reigning European champions, the Swedes, reigning Olympic vice-champions, and Ireland. This is without a doubt the toughest group. “It’s a big challenge that awaits us to try to obtain this qualification before the start of the Olympic Games.”reacted the coach on the website of the French Federation (FFF).

Thanks to their career in the League of Nations, the Blues were nevertheless part of hat 1 of League A, along with Spain (victorious in the League of Nations), Germany and the Netherlands (the semi-finals). finalists). The Spanish, reigning world champions, will play the Danes, the Belgians and the Czechs, while the Dutch will cross paths with the Italians, the Norwegians and the Finns. Finally, Germany will face Austria, Poland and Iceland.

The qualifying phase takes place, from April to July, according to the same format as the Nations League, namely that the teams are divided into three leagues (16 teams in A and B, 19 in C). Les Bleues will have to finish among the first two teams in their group of four in League A in order to be directly qualified for the final phase of the Euro. If they finish in 3rd or 4th place in their group, the French will have to go through play-offs (from September to December). They would then meet a team from League C in a first round, then a team from League B in a second. Seven teams will qualify via these play-offs for the European Championship in Switzerland.