Just Four Teams Remain in Euro 2025 as Semi-Finals Approach

After 28 enthralling matches, the 16 sides who came to Switzerland for Euro 2025 have been whittled down to just four. England, Italy, Germany or Spain will be crowned (or remain) European Champions after Sunday’s final at St. Jakob’s Park in Basel. 

Before that however, there is the small matter of reaching the final, which will be decided across Tuesday and Wednesday’s semi-final ties. 

Will we get a repeat of the 2023 World Cup Final with England vs Spain? Could it be a repeat of the Euro 2022 final from Wembley between England and Germany?

Or could Italy cause a seismic upset and make it to the European Championship final for the first time since 1997?

England vs Italy - Tuesday 22nd July, Geneva

England are on the verge of a third consecutive major tournament final after a dramatic comeback against Sweden from 2-0 down saw the Lionesses win on penalties.

Standing in between them and more history is “the Azzure” who made it to their first Euro semi final in 28 years thanks to a Cristiana Girelli brace against Norway, including a header in the 90th minute to snatch a smash-and-grab 2-1 victory.

The Italians slogan is “Il meglio deve ancora venire.” which translates to “the best is still unwritten”. This was certainly the case when the two countries met in the men's tournament in 2021, but only time will tell as to whether this is the case or not at Euro 2025.

How did they get here?

England finished second in Group B having lost 2-1 to France in their opening game before winning their remaining two matches in style.

Sarina Wiegman's team thrashed the Netherlands 4-0 in Zurich to kick-start their tournament before hammering Wales 6-1 to send their rivals home and take themselves through to the knockout stages.

The quarter final against Sweden highlighted more defensive woes as two mistakes contributed to two goals, one from Kosovare Asllani and the other from Stina Blackstenius.

England looked to be heading home until an inspired Chloe Kelly substitution saw her get an assist for a Lucy Bronze header before the Arsenal winger put another cross in three minutes later which was headed down by one Arsenal teammate Beth Mead and punted home by another in Michelle Agyemang for her first ever goal at a major tournament.

A chaotic and frankly atrocious penalty shoot-out then followed, in which only five of the 14 penalties taken were scored. Fortunately for England, they scored three to Sweden's two, taking them through in bizarre circumstances.

In comparison, Italy's route to the last four was breeze, but still there were challenges to overcome. The group stage started well with a 1-0 victory over Belgium, and despite a 1-1 draw with Portugal in the second game, Le Azzure knew they were likely to progress because of their superior goal difference.

A 3-1 defeat to Spain on Matchday 3 didn't prevent the Italians from reaching the quarter-finals, and in fact allowed them to rest a number of key players once it became clear that Portugal weren't going to hit the kind of numbers they would need against Belgium.

That rest served Italy well, as they were able to keep going right until the dying moments of their quarter-final against Norway, and that was when Christina Girelli snatched the late winner, powering a majestic header in off the underside of the crossbar.

Team News

England are waiting on the fitness of three of their back four, with Leah Williamson, Alex Greenwood and Lucy Bronze all picking up knocks in the quarter-final victory over Sweden.

The consensus appears to be that Greenwood and Bronze have overcome their issues, but it's a little more touch and go with the England captain. There are reports that she wasn't fit to train until this morning.

Italy meanwhile are the only side left in the tournament without any known injury or suspension concerns at all. Andrea Soncin has his full squad of 23 players completely fit and available for selection after the quarter-final victory over Norway.

Germany vs Spain - Wednesday 23rd July, Zurich

Spain have been the most dominant team at Euro 2025 so far and are the only side with a 100% record. However, they have yet to play an opponet of Germany's calibre.

What Germany can take from the World Champions’ 2-0 win over Switzerland is how the host nation defended for 60 minutes or so before Athena del Castillo opened the scoring.

Germany know about being able to hold on and defend as they did in their penalty win against France, holding on while being a player down for 107 minutes.

How did they get here?

Spain topped Group B with three wins, none of them all that difficult. They started out with a thumping 5-0 win over Portugal, a victory margin matched only by England in their 6-1 win over Wales.

Belgium put up a fight in the first half but were overpowered by the World Champions in a game that ended 6-2, before Italy posed a much greater threat but ultimately lost 3-1.

Switzerland proved by far the most difficult opponent's for Spain, simply because they sat back and defended like a brick wall and an effective brick wall at that. It took Spain until the 66th-minute to break the deadlock, Athena del Castillo finishing off a lovely team move.

Claudia Pina doubled the lead with a stunning strike to send Spain through, but Switzerland may have shown the other remaining sides that Spain are stoppable with enough discipline.

Germany have had a far more turbulent path to the semi-finals, which usually wouldn't matter in a knockout tournament, but Christian Wuck's side have sustained some damage along the way.

Despite victories in the opening two games against Poland and Denmark, they finished second in their group behind Sweden after losing 4-1 to them on the final matchday.

As mentioned they had a heroic quarter-final against France, where, despite being reduced to ten players, keeper Berger was the hero making a remarkable save in extra time at 1-1 to prevent France winning the game before saving two penalties including the deciding one from Alice Sombath.

Team News

Germany captain Giulia Gwinn remains sidelined with a knee injury she picked up on matchday one.

But there’s some good news for Christian Wuck with Carlotta Wamser returning from suspension following her red card against Sweden in their final group match.

However, Kathrin Hendrich and Sjoeke Nusken will be missing. Hendrich was shown a straight red against France while the latter reached the yellow card limit before they reset after the quarter-finals.

For Spain, Laia Aleixandri is suspended after receiving a second-consecutive yellow card against Switzerland last time out. This should see Real Madrid defender Maria Mendez come into central defence to partner Irene Paredes. 

Germany have not lost in any of their eight matches with Spain, winning five of them including the Bronze Medal Match at the Paris Olympics, the Euro 2022 Group stages and the 2019 World Cup groups.