England have been drawn in the same group as Northern Ireland, Norway and Austria for the 2022 Women’s Euros.
The delayed competition will begin on July 6 when hosts England take on Austria at Old Trafford.
The Lionesses will then play Norway at The Amex, home to Brighton, on July 11 and Northern Ireland at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium on July 15. The top two teams in the group are guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals.
England boss Sarina Wiegman was Holland manager when they won the competition on home turf in 2017, which included a semi-final victory over the Lionesses.
The 52-year-old has enjoyed a perfect start to her reign in charge with four wins from four games and will be hoping that form continues into next summer.
England recently beat Northern Ireland 4-0 in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley
‘They’re countries we know very well,’ said Wiegman after the draw. ‘Austria and Northern Ireland are in our group now for the qualification of the World Cup. Norway I know really well because I played them a lot for the Netherlands.’
Should England progress to the quarter-finals, they will likely face Germany or Spain.
Speaking on a home nations clash with Northern Ireland, Wiegman added. ‘It’s so nice. I hope it’s going to be sold out at Southampton. It’s nice for everyone.’
Northern Ireland are making their tournament debut and are the lowest ranked team in the competition. England recently beat Kenny Shiels’ side 4-0 in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley and will face them away from home in April, just three months before they meet in the Euros.
Shiels knows his side, some of whom are part-time, will be the underdogs next summer.
‘The happiest people here tonight are English, Norwegian and Austrian, they’ve got us. When it came out the English people were all cheering and roaring, “we’ve got Northern Ireland”, it’s an easy match for them.
‘The German host Nadine Kessler had a summary of 15 teams but she had no data for us so there was no summary on us. I thought that was a touch of irony there.
‘We’ve got to segregate the three games and try and do our best in the first one then think about the second and then think about the third.
‘No matter who we meet at the upper echelons of European football, we’re going to be up against it, but we know that. We’ll go in there and give it our best shot.’
Shiels confirmed that his side are hoping to go full-time from January to July ahead of the tournament.
‘We’re trying to go full-time for five to six months. It’s hard to do because we’ve got a part-time league running alongside it but we’re going to try. It would maybe bring the gap in a little bit. We really do appreciate that the government and the IFA are right behind us.’
England boss Sarina Wiegman was Holland manager when they won the competition in 2017
Austria are also in the same World Cup qualifying group as England and Northern Ireland. They were held to a 2-2 draw with Northern Ireland earlier this week and will face the Lionesses at the Stadium of Light next month.
Norway, who England beat in the quarter-finals of the 2019 World Cup, are likely to be England’s toughest game. They are ranked 12th in the world, four places behind England in eighth.
England legend and record goalscorer Kelly Smith is confident the Lionesses can progress from their group after avoiding a possible draw against Sweden or Spain.
I’t’s good to see we’ve kept away from those teams,’ said Smith. ‘I think we’ve got probably the best draw out of the lot of them. We’ve just played Northern Ireland at Wembley, we beat them quite comfortably. We’ve got Austria next month and we know we can beat them. Norway is probably the toughest one in the group.
But Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps insisted England cannot afford to take any team for granted. ‘It becomes a little more real now. We’re meeting them both in the group, it could work in your favour, it could work against you.
‘You have to take every single game as a blank canvas. The Northern Ireland game being in there as well is a little bit of more excitement. You can’t take any team for granted.’
Holders Holland are in Group C and will face Sweden, who are ranked second in the world, Russia and Switzerland while Germany and Spain have been drawn together in Group B. They are joined by Denmark and Finland. France, Italy, Belgium and Iceland make up Group D.
The final will take place at Wembley on July 31 with the semi-finals to be held at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane and Stadium MK, home to Milton Keynes Dons.
England last hosted the women’s Euros in 2005 but Hope Powell’s side were knocked out at the group stage after defeats by Sweden and Denmark. That tournament consisted of just eight teams with two groups of four but the number of countries rose to 12 in 2009 and 16 in 2017.
Juan Mata, Ruben Dias, Kelly Smith and Karen Carney helped make the draw in Manchester
The Lionesses’ have never won the competition but reached the final in 2009, where they were defeated by Germany. They also reached the final of the unofficial Euros in 1984 but were beaten on penalties by Sweden.
UEFA are hoping for record crowds next summer and a ticket ballot is now open until 6pm on November 16, with prices ranging from £5 to £50. Any remaining unsold tickets will go on sale in February.
And Wiegman encouraged fans to get their tickets for the opening game against Austria at Old Trafford. ‘Buy tickets. It’s the opening game, it’s going to be massive. When the crowd is there and it’s all sold out they’re going to be the 12th player behind us.’