What Happened: Euro 2025 draw, Chelsea finally drop points and City in trouble
Flo Lloyd-Hughes takes a look at some of the big stories in women's football and highlights the latest pieces to read on The Cutback.
Welcome to a slightly later edition of The Cutback’s newsletter What Happened. I wanted to make sure I included some reaction to the Euro 2025 draw that took place on Monday night, hence why this is hitting your inbox a bit later than usual.
As always, this is your weekly round-up of the biggest talkings points in women’s football. This mail-out will always be free to read and sent to your inbox every week.
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In today’s issue: Euro 2025 draw, Chelsea drop points, Manchester City’s injury crisis and a closer look at Arsenal’s midfield.
England and Wales drawn together at Euro 2025
We finally know who will be facing each other at Euro 2025 next summer in Switzerland. Here’s a quick recap of what happened in the group stage draw and how it looks for England and Wales.
England were in Pot 2 for this draw (second seeds) while Wales were in Pot 4. The top seeds that England could have been drawn with were: Switzerland (hosts), Germany, Spain, and France.
The Pot 3 nations were the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Belgium. While Pot 4 (the lowest-ranked sides) contained Finland, Poland, Portugal, and Wales. Every single representative in the room wanted to be drawn with Switzerland, the dream scenario for all of the Pot 2 and Pot 3 teams.
In the end, England did get drawn in one of the toughest groups. They will be facing France, Netherlands and Wales in Group D. It might seem worrying at first, but let’s not forget, England are the holders and currently ranked fourth in the world. Frankly, they should get out of this group, even if they have had a few iffy performances against both France and the Netherlands in recent years.
Sarina Wiegman has shown that her team can navigate tournament football extremely efficiently, even when not playing that well. I would expect them to come out of this group and if they don’t that is a huge failure.
It’s been a rocky few years for England since the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final, so its easy to forget this team is one of the best in the world. We haven’t seen them hit those levels in a while, but it doesn’t mean they can’t. An England that is in rhythm and in form tops this group.
Group D is definitely the most glamorous group at Euro 2025. You have three huge nations and brands in women’s football, lots of big-name stars, and then the shiny new tournament debutants Wales. I’m reluctant to call it a group of death because I’m tricking myself into thinking it’s not the worst group for England.
The fact that England have drawn Wales is great for the tournament too. Two home nations and rivals drawn against each other.
Here are all the groups. Let me know what you think of England’s draw and the line up.
Group A - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland
Group B - Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy
Group C - Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden
Group D - France, England, Wales, Netherlands
Chelsea drop points
Last week, I shared my thoughts on how the WSL was getting very predictable and added a few ideas on how we might spice up the league.
It seems I conjured some kind of magic spell that suddenly brought a bit of excitement to the season.
On Saturday, Chelsea’s 100% start to the campaign finally came to an end. They couldn’t make it a record 10 league wins in a row, instead, they came away with a 1-1 draw at Leicester City.
Chelsea were very poor for 70 minutes but created enough in the last 20 to win the game. The first chunk of their performance was laboured and unrecognisable from what we’ve seen so far under Sonia Bompastor. The passing was shockingly bad, the midfield couldn’t progress the ball and there were issues on both flanks, with Lucy Bronze and Ashley Lawrence struggling.
Leicester City played very well for their point. They defended astutely, kept compact, and made it hard for Chelsea to play through them. What they also did very well — which we haven’t seen much of this season — is execute the best counter-attacking chance that came their way. Hannah Cain was a menace all afternoon up against Bronze and played a part in Missy Goodwin’s goal that was well taken, although helped by some bad Chelsea defending.
This sort of performance was bound to come at some point, there was no way Chelsea could continue that ridiculous run all season and there were signs of an imperfect midfield and defence earlier in the campaign.
December does seem to be when they typically have their rocky moments. Who could forget that infamous 1-0 loss to Reading and 4-0 collapse to Wolfsburg in 2021?
The winter break comes at a good time as some players were starting to creak after a busy period of international games, WSL matches and Champions League fixtures.
Dropping points could have been more of a banana skin in the title race, but as it stands Chelsea are still the outright best team in the league and the door they did open up was firmly slammed back in Manchester City’s face.
City miss a big opportunity
Following Chelsea’s draw on Saturday, Manchester City had the chance to close the gap to the top to three points. However, they couldn’t capitalise on the opportunity and lost 2-1 to Everton in one of the biggest upsets of the season so far.
City have suffered some horrible injuries this season. They lost Risa Shimizu to an ACL injury before the season started and new signing Vivianne Miedema only managed three games before she needed to have an operation. Lauren Hemp is currently recovering from surgery, Bunny Shaw is out until the new year, Naomi Layzell is working her way back to full fitness and we’re still waiting to hear the extent of Alex Greenwood’s injury. That is an extensive injury list that includes most of their attacking output and key defensive players.
So given the injury crisis they’re experiencing, perhaps it’s not surprising they suffered a defeat like this. But you look at the team Gareth Taylor put out and it’s still a very strong side in relative terms, but all the usual connections that City rely on - Greenwood pulling the strings from defence, Shaw working the box and Hemp creating opportunities - were missing.
Raphael Adelugba unpacked that devastating result for City, their injury problems and where they go from here.
The winter break will be welcomed by City, but first, they just have the small matter of Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday night. City are already through to the next round, it’s just whether they can top the group and get an easier quarter-final draw. At this point, they just might need to do some damage limitation with that squad and its fitness. The most important thing is to not lose anymore players.
Elsewhere….
Max Radwan has been looking at Arsenal’s midfield, some Renee Slegers’ tweaks and ongoing issues. Have a read.
That’s it from me today. See you same time next week.
What a WSL weekend. Would be a little bit worried if I was a City fan about coming up against a Barca side no doubt looking to even the score after the earlier defeat…
On group of death or not: tournament football is tough and unpredictable. (I still have flashbacks to Germany flying out after the group stages at WWC23.) I don’t think any of the groups look easy. Group A maybe but Switzerland are the hosts, Norway’s form at tournaments has been inconsistent and Iceland are capable of an upset. Bit of a shame for Wales maybe but they go in with nothing to lose.
I think it's definitely a Group of Death for England, although if pushed, I'd probably say France end up in 3rd. But I won't be shocked if that ends up being England.