Spain will face Portugal, Belgium and Italy in the group stage of the European Championship in Switzerland, which will be held next summer from July 2 to 27 and in which 16 teams will participate. The team will arrive in the Swiss country in search of its first major continental tournament, in which it will be participating for the fifth time in its history. The first was in 1997, when La Roja reached the semifinals—there were no quarterfinals—and finished fourth. In her other three appearances at the Euro Cups (2013, 2017 and 2022) she was eliminated in the quarterfinals. That is to say, Spain, the current world and UEFA Nations League champion, has so far never managed to overcome a qualifying round in the largest European national team tournament.
The draw that was held this afternoon in the Swiss city of Lausanne has produced a group, B, in which the team – being the second classified in the ranking FIFA was part of pot 1 along with the host country, Germany and France—it is the clear favorite to reach the quarterfinals, a round to which the first two from each of the four groups advance.
Spain’s rivals, which will debut on July 3 against Portugal, are inferior on paper and have never won a major national team tournament. Italy has played two finals in a Euro Cup (1993 and 1997), it is 13th in the rankingand a few weeks ago they tied in a friendly with La Roja; Belgium is 19th and this year has lost both of its games against Montse Tomé’s team (2-0 and 0-7), while Portugal is 22nd and has never gone beyond the group stage in its two previous participations (2017 and 2022). .
Spain has escaped England in the draw, the current champion, who was part of pot 2 and has fallen into group D with France, the Netherlands and Wales. They have also avoided Norway, Sweden and the Dutch team itself, who were not seeded and also know what it is like to win a European Championship. The country that has won the tournament the most times is Germany, which has eight titles (1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013) and will face Poland, Denmark and Sweden in group C. The A has been made up of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Finland.
The tournament – it is its 14th edition – will have a budget of 41 million euros, which represents an increase of 156% compared to the amount of money (26.3 million) distributed by the Eurocup that was played in 2022 – it was initially planned for 2021, but it was delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, as approved this Monday by the UEFA executive committee, national federations will have to distribute between 30% and 40% of the prizes among female footballers for the first time.
The championship will have eight venues: the St. Jakob-Park in Basel (38,512 spectators), the Stadion Wankdorf in Bern (31,783), the Stade de Genève in Geneva (30,084), the Stockhorn Arena in Thun (10,398), the Stade Sion Tourbillon (16,263), the Kybunpark in St. Gallen (19,694), the Letzigrund Arena in Zurich (26,104) and the Swissporarena in Lucerne (16,800).
UEFA expects the Euro Cup audience to reach 500 million viewers, up from 274 million in 2022 or 178 million in 2017. The number of tickets for the matches will be close to 700,000, which will be sold for between 26 and 96 euros. The organization will also offer free round-trip public transport tickets valid on the day of the match to those who have purchased a ticket to go to the stadium.
The four groups of the Euro Cup and the matches in Spain
The four groups:
Group A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Finland.
Group B: Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy.
Group C: Germany, Poland, Denmark and Sweden.
Group D: France, England, Wales and Netherlands.
Spain’s matches:
Spain – Portugal: July 3 in Bern.
Spain – Belgium: July 7 in Thun.
Spain – Italy: July 11 in Bern.
