Wales discover Euro 2025 qualifying opponents
DUBLIN, IRELAND - 27 FEBRUARY 2024: Wales' Lily Woodham celebrates her sides second goal during the International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Wales at the Tallaght Stadium on the 27th of February 2024. (Pic by Ashley Crowden/FAW)
Wales found out their Euro 2025 fate today, as the qualification groups were drawn in Nyon.
Put into group B4, Wales will face off against Croatia, Ukraine, and Kosovo, as they try and reach their first major tournament.
New head coach Rhian Wilkinson admitted her knowledge of the teams that Wales will face wasn’t great, but vowed to work hard and make sure no stone is left unturned.
“Coming into this, people had asked, who do we want? The reality is, with any draw, you never really know.
“We’ve got some strong teams in our group, and there are also teams in there that we don’t know much about. We’ve never played Kosovo before so that’s a new country for us.
“But there’s a lot of work on our end to turn things around for all three teams. In the next 24 hours we’ll know more about the schedule.
“I honestly don’t know enough about the three teams currently. Now we know our opponents, this is where I dig in as a coach.
“I know of these teams, but I don’t know them well enough yet. This is how I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks, to make sure I know everything about these teams.”
Wales were relegated to League B of the Nations League after coming bottom of their League A group containing Germany, Denmark, and Iceland.
Now placed in a group alongside three countries who are below them in the rankings, there may be an expectation from fans that Wales do immeasurably better this time around.
Wilkinson says her aim is to win every game possible and thinks Wales can beat any team on the planet on their day.
“Our ambition is always to win every game. I talked about in my press conference last week, this team can beat any country on their day. I truly believe that, but it’s the consistency that’s key.
“We have to keep developing our young players who are coming through the system, to make sure that we’re keeping fresh new talent coming through. Consistency will allow us to have success in this tournament, and that ambition.
“I know if we do that, that we’ll be able to deliver results.”
There have been talks for a while now that Wales could play games outside of Cardiff and the South Wales area in general.
Wilkinson revealed that talks are ongoing about that, but for now, she wanted to be visible in every corner of Wales.
“There’s discussions being had, but I don’t want to speak out of turn. That is something that’s being discussed at this time, but I can only speak for myself as the head coach.
“I will be getting around the country in short order to make sure that I am visible across every corner of the country.”
The former Canadian international ended her press conference with a call to arms, stating that the team need the fans more than ever for what will be a difficult but important qualifying campaign.
“A big part of this campaign is that, hopefully our fanbase doesn’t feel like this is Nations League B and maybe not show up.
“If anything, we have to continue to drive the public to make sure the women’s game continues to stride forward. We have a tough group, and qualification after that is not easy.
“I do think a difference maker is the size of our country and how we can mobilise. We’ve seen how that’s happened for the men’s team, and we will absolutely need that for the women.”
To find out how Wales can qualify for Euro 2025, clink the link here for a comprehensive guide.
