England, Wales Off to a Bad Start at Euro 2025
On Saturday, July 5th, 2025, England and Wales both lost their opening matches at Euro 2025 against France and the Netherlands, respectively.
Saturday was Wales’s debut in a major soccer tournament. They were put up against the Netherlands, a tough challenge indeed, with the latter winning Euro 2017. They played in the Swiss town of Lucerne.
The Netherlands applied heavy pressure from the start, while Wales defended excellently. However, right before halftime, Vivianne Miedema, the Manchester City striker, scored her 100th goal for the Netherlands.
For the rest of the game, the Netherlands kept the pace, and Victoria Pelova and Esmee Brugts scored, securing a 3-0 win.
Angharad James, the Wales captain, said, “Every game is a tough game. We gave it our all. It wasn’t quite good enough, we know that, and we’ll learn from it. But I couldn’t be prouder of this group.”
England battled against France, this time in Zurich. The game was much closer.
16 minutes into the game, Alessia Russo scored a goal. However, the VAR detected an offside in the build-up, and the goal was considered void. After that, the French started their attack, eventually scoring two goals.
In the 87th minute, Keira Walsh scored once for England, , ending the game with a score of 2-1.
