England entertain France in a blockbuster UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 Qualifier at St James’ Park.
Victory would see England go top of the group, whilst France will stay top with a win and open up a five-point gap to Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses.
Team News
Niamh Charles is ruled out for England due to a calf injury and has been replaced by stand-by defender, Maya Le Tissier.
Charles’ Chelsea teammate, Lauren James has also withdrawn from the squad due to a foot injury and has been replaced by Jess Naz.
Kayla Rendell is sidelined with an ankle injury and has been replaced on the standby list by Lucy Thomas, whilst defender – Lotte Wubben Moy is sidelined with a foot injury.
France will be without Vicki Becho who is suspended for this game after she was red carded in their win in Sweden last month.
When is Kick-Off
England host France on Friday 31 May at St James’ Park, Newcastle, in a 8pm BST kick-off, live on ITV4 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is England’s first UEFA Women’s Euro qualifier against France.
- France are visiting England for the first time in UEFA Women’s Euro Qualifying, but are unbeaten in two previous competitive visits in World Cup Qualifiers (W1, D1)
- France are yet to concede away to England on English soil in all competitions (W2, D1).
- Wiegman’s Lionesses have kept just one clean sheet in four matches in 2024 (W3, D1).
- France have won each of their two Women’s Euro qualifiers in this group so far by 1-0 results (W2).
Prediction
Sat second in the table but knowing that Sweden have two winnable games against Ireland in this window, England really need to deliver a strong performance in these games against France and try to get at least a draw in either fixture.
James’ absence though is a huge loss up front in a fixture of this magnitude but the key for England lies in their defence, especially given how shaky they look when opposition crank up the intensity and pressure as Ireland demonstrated last month.
France meanwhile have been clinical in their two wins but they have also been wasteful despite their overall dominance, which suggests that they could be slightly more vulnerable if England can buckle up their defensive performance and frustrate them.
I though do expect this to be a scrappy game given what is at stake across both games and in mid-July as neither team can really afford to lose, so a draw might be a fair result.
Prediction: England 1-1 France
Result: England 1-2 France