Tournament in Switzerland

ÖFB in European Championship qualifiers against Germany, Iceland & Poland

ÖFB team manager Irene Fuhrmann

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Austria's women's national team knows its opponents for the qualifiers for the 2025 European Championship in Switzerland. Team manager Irene Fuhrmann's selection will face Germany, Iceland and Poland.

The wish of many players in the women's national soccer team has come true: Team boss Irene Fuhrmann's squad will face neighboring Germany in qualifying for the 2025 European Championship finals in Switzerland. This means the ÖFB team will be spared a clash with world champions and Nations League winners Spain as well as France and the Netherlands, who were also in pot one. Other opponents in Pool A4 are Iceland and Poland.

The top two teams from the four groups in the highest league category will secure their ticket to the European Championship, while the third and fourth-placed teams will have to try their luck in a two-stage play-off against representatives from Leagues B and C in the fall. The exact match dates have not yet been set, only the time slots for the group stage, which will be completed by mid-July, are known. The games will be played twice between April 3 and 9, May 29 and June 4, and July 10 and 16.

Looking forward to Germany
"Of course, we're really looking forward to the clashes with Germany, because they're particularly explosive. It's really cool to play against a nation with so much tradition and a successful past," said Fuhrmann. Like players such as Bayern Munich legionnaire Sarah Zadrazil and Liverpool's Marie-Therese Höbinger, she had hoped to be drawn against the DFB team. Against Germany, they have the chance to take revenge for the 2-0 defeat in the 2022 European Championship quarter-finals in Brentford.

Sarah Zadrazil

(Bild: Facebook.com/FC Bayern Frauen)

In three duels with the world number six and record European champions so far, nothing worthwhile has emerged. In 2016 (2:4) and 2018 (1:3) there were defeats in away tests. Captain Sarah Puntigam and Co. have also come up against the Icelanders in the recent past. In July 2023, they lost a test in Wiener Neustadt 1-0. Their memories of the 2017 European Championship are much more positive, however, when they recorded a clear 3-0 victory on their way to the semi-finals at the end of the group stage. "We're expecting a duel on equal terms against Iceland, even though we narrowly lost a friendly 1-0 last year," said the ÖFB team boss.

"The great unknown"
They have not lost against Poland in their last three meetings, winning two of them (the last in 2016 at the Cyprus Cup). Prior to that, the Poles usually had the upper hand, but that is no longer meaningful due to the strong development of the ÖFB in recent years. "Poland are the big unknown for us, but we've seen that they've done a good job in recent years, including with their young talent," said Fuhrmann. She does not expect any of the matches to be a walkover. "We'll have to push ourselves to the limit in all six group games to hold our own," emphasized the Vienna native.

With performances like those in the Nations League, where they finished second in a group behind France and ahead of Norway and Portugal, a top-two finish seems quite realistic. Peter Schöttel agrees. "With Germany, we naturally got exactly the draw that everyone wanted. I'm happy with the draw and am confident that our women's national team has a realistic chance of qualifying directly for the 2025 European Championship in Switzerland," said the ÖFB sports director.

These are the groups
Austria was drawn from pot two, but is ranked 17th, just behind Iceland (15th). Poland is number 29 in the world. Swiss former team goalkeeper Gaelle Thalmann acted as the "lucky winner" at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon.

The draw for qualification for the 2025 European Women's Football Championship in Switzerland has resulted in the following groups in League A:

• Group A1: Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Finland

• Group A2: Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Czech Republic

• Group A3: France, England, Sweden, Ireland

• Group A4: Germany, AUSTRIA, Iceland, Poland