UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifiers: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland find out the opponents

Defending the England title may not be as easy as many assume.

In front of them is a difficult group that includes Sweden, the Olympic runner-up, in addition to France, which is participating in the major tournaments.

In the Republic of Ireland, they will face Arsenal's Katie McCabe, who helped the team to its first appearance at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Sweden has been a hotbed of talent for several years, and the Women's Super League has attracted large numbers from the Scandinavian region, so there will be familiar faces at that match too.

England were strong favorites to win Euro 2022, but since then the quality of competition across Europe has improved significantly.

Sarina Wegman's side will need to be at their best and will hope to have key players back from injury – including Chelsea duo Fran Kirby and Millie Bright.

They will be boosted by their performances at the recent international camp in Spain, where they recorded big wins over Austria and Italy, and the new players impressed on their debut.

Northern Ireland will be determined to make the most of a draw that gives them a real chance of qualifying.

Portugal, with several exciting young players, are expected to be their strongest opponents, but NI will stand a chance against lower-ranked opponents in Malta and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Scotland, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Women's World Cup, are the highest-ranked team in their qualifying group, so will feel confident too.

However, the Scots will be without starting midfielder Caroline Weir, who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury last year.

Wales, under the new management of coach Ryan Wilkinson, faces a difficult match with Ukraine, but is capable of topping its group if its key players remain fit and perform well.

The qualifiers will witness each team facing the other teams in its group at home and away.

The group winners and runners-up from each group qualify into League A automatically, while the remaining seven spots are occupied by the best-ranked teams from all three leagues.

All third and fourth placed teams from League A will qualify for the play-offs.

The top three teams in each League B group will also participate in the playoffs. If Switzerland finishes in the top three of their group, the best fourth-placed team in League B will advance to the play-offs.

From League C, the five group winners and the best three runners-up will qualify for the play-offs.

The 28 teams participating in the qualifiers will be reduced to seven, with the first round split into two tracks.

The eight teams from League A will be drawn against the eight teams from League C. The top six teams from League B will face the six lowest-ranked teams from League B. Both sets of matches are home and away.

In the second playoff round, the remaining 14 teams will be divided across classification. The seven best-ranked countries will be drawn against the other seven teams. The winners of those matches will advance to the finals.