Key events
Sarina Wiegman insists that England are fully prepared to kick off their Euro title defence today. In her pre-match press conference on Friday, she said: “The team looks really good, I think we are ready, we had our last session this morning and everyone came through well. I think we had some good weeks where we trained, we could do some tactics and I think we are very well prepared. You see the bonding. We have worked really, really hard and I definitely think we are ready to go.”
Don’t forget you can keep tabs on all the latest transfers with our transfer interactives:
Louise Taylor
“Lucerne is noted primarily for its majestic lake and gorgeous medieval city centre, but it is also a part of central Switzerland where gently rolling hills give way to jagged Alpine peaks. For Wales, this tourist magnet marks the potentially awkward junction between the heady optimism of an exhilarating journey towards their first major tournament and the reality of the formidable challenge posed by Saturday’s opening match against the Netherlands.”
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The Guardian Football team have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks putting together features, interviews and team guides to see you all through the tournament. Let me first point you in the direction of this absolutely mammoth guide to all 368 players appearing at Euro 2025 this month.
Wales head coach Rhian Wilkinson insists her team can do “something special” in Switzerland this summer despite being the lowest-ranked side. Speaking head of the opening Group D match, she said: “When you watch Wales, you can expect to see a courageous team. A team that’s ready to compete with the very best in the world.
“I’ve inherited a team at the exact right moment for them to do something special. They’re a testament to all the people that came before and all the players that came before, and that my arrival was maybe just that kind of new coach at that right time who was able to ask them to do things that maybe in the past they weren’t ready for, and that now, they’re ready to try. My staff has done a great job at creating an environment where error is not punished, and it is a safe environment where we ask them to push themselves to the limits of their ability – because why wouldn’t we?”
You can keep up to date with the race for the Euro 2025 Golden Boot here:
We are lucky enough to have legendary Chelsea manager, WSL icon and United States women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes on board as a columnist over the next few weeks. Here is what she had to say in her column this week…
Thanks John. I’ll be with you all for the next few hours as we count down to kick-off in Lucerne.
And with that, I pass over to Emillia, who will take you to that historic Welsh game.
Important story on the Iranian fans who, as it stands, will not be allowed to support their team in the US at the 2026 men’s World Cup.
What can Iran do? “Boycotting the World Cup is not a solution,” Siavash Pakdaman, a Tehran-based fan, says. “Refusing to play on US soil would be a dangerous precedent – any host country could start excluding teams it has issues with. Just as the Iranian delegation can and should be present at the United Nations in the US, the Iranian team should also play on American soil if the draw requires it – without relocation.”
Later tonight, a new era of the Sarina Wiegman will begin. The final chapter?
Further detail on that sealed Walker to Burnley deal.
Via Manchester City’s social media: “We can confirm @kylewalker2 is to join Burnley on a permanent deal, bringing an end to a hugely successful eight-year stay with Manchester City. Wishing you all the best, Kyle!”
That confirms Friday’s story:
Some quotes ahead of Norway’s match with Finland: They beat hosts 2-1 on the opening day.
Norway defender Maren Mjelde handed over the captain’s armband to Ada Hegerberg and the striker responded by scoring a vital equaliser. A win in Sion sees the Norwegians through.
Mjelde on Hegerberg and Norway, per Reuters.
“She’s brilliant. I was so happy for her to open the tournament with a goal, it’s good for the strikers to get the goals. Really pleased for her, pleased for the team, because we needed that win.”
“We all knew that it wasn’t good enough, but if they could do it in 45 minutes, we could turn it around in 45 minutes. And I think that’s what we agreed on going out there, we promised each other that we would do everything, give everything out there for 45 minutes. We promised each other that, and I think we did that.”
Here’s the match report for that shock Matildas defeat.
Will Unwin
This is a week that will be forever remembered for the loss of Diogo Jota.
Thousands will line the streets as friends and family in Gondomar pay their final respects to footballers Diogo Jota and Andre Silva on Saturday. The funeral will take place at 10am at the Igreja Matriz in the brothers’ hometown in Portugal, where they were revered.
Mourners have travelled from over the globe to say goodbye to Jota and Silva. Streams of people queued for hours to attend a public wake on Friday in the town at Capela da Ressurreição. The Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the prime minister Luís Montenegro were among those to visit the chapel. Liverpool teammate Darwin Nunez, as well as international colleagues Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who play for Manchester United, and Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva went to the vigil.
Liverpool staff and players arrived on Friday after the club chartered a plane to take them to Portugal. The director of football Richard Hughes and chief executive Michal Edwards were among the club officials to join mourners at the chapel on Friday.
Outside the Gondomar football ground locals have left scarves, shirts, flowers and mementos to remember the brothers who began playing at the club as children and the academy is named in Jota’s honour. Silva returned to represent the team as an adult before embarking on a professional career in the Portuguese second division.
Suzanne Wrack sets the scene in Zurich, through the eyes of the captain and coach of the Lionesses.
“The team has been a bit in transition, of course,” the manager, Sarina Wiegman, said, “and we absolutely cherish what we have done before, and we never forget it, and those are lifetime experiences for us and for our families and also for the fans. But you have to move on and you have to be on top. Things are changing very quickly, so we have to, too. We came together in February and we said: ‘It’s a new challenge.’ The approach was there anyway, but we called it the New England.”
A shock result elsewhere in the world of women’s soccer.
There is, of course, another international tournament going on. Here’s the latest from the Club World Cup.
Here’s someone who knows the pressures – and might one day coach the Lionesses, Emma Hayes, The Guardian’s columnist for the Euros.
When you are the holders, the most important thing to get right is your internal hunger and understand you’ve got a target on your back in every fixture. To counter that, you have to find another level in yourself because a title cannot be won the same way you won it before.
Friday’s matches saw a couple of favourites win.
Preamble
Here’s where it all starts for the Lionesses. The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? A huge test awaits in the challenge of France. A new-look team, though one full of established stars, needs to get out of the group stage, and then perhaps the competition opens up for them. That’s all in the future, perhaps, but for Wales this is history, to quote in the news Noel Gallagher, the end of a long journey to be at a finals. Jess Fishlock leads her team against the Dutch, and Wales could be the wild card. So, a big day awaits, with news from the footbal industry as a whole coming in all day.
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