Women's Euro 2005 draw in Manchester
TheFA.com visits the City of Manchester Stadium for the Women's
Euro 2005 draw and speaks to Hope Powell and Sven-Goran Eriksson.


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England will meet Finland, Denmark and Sweden in Group A while Group B features European and World champions Germany plus France, Norway and Italy.

Powell’s team will kick off the tournament on Sunday 5 June with a match against Finland at the City of Manchester Stadium, where Wednesday’s draw was held.

“I’m very happy with the draw,” said the National Coach. “I’m glad it’s over and we can step up our preparations knowing who we’ll be up against in our group.

“The opening game suits us and I’m looking forward to us playing in the magnificent City of Manchester Stadium, hopefully in front of a big crowd.

“Getting strong support from England fans will certainly help the girls, who know we have a tough task but who will be as pleased with the draw as I am.

“It’s good to have avoided Germany, who we’ve never beaten. It’s also good for the tournament that the Germans and Sweden have been drawn in separate groups.”

Sweden, runners-up to Germany at both the Women’s Euro 2001 and the 2003 World Cup, will be favourites to win Group A.

They comfortably qualified for the finals, to be played in the North West of England between 5-19 June, and have a fine record against England.

Only once in 15 meetings have England beaten the Swedes, though ironically that 1984 victory was immediately followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat as Sweden became the first European champions after the two-leg final had ended level on aggregate.

That was Sweden’s only Euro title and the only time that England have reached the final. Following the group draw it’s possible that the two nations could meet again in this year’s final, though Hope Powell is looking no further than the group games.

The 11 June meeting with Sweden will be England’s final group match following the games against Finland and, on 8 June, Denmark.

In contrast to their sparse past success against Sweden, England have not lost any of the six games they have to date played against Finland while the record against Denmark is a very even five wins, five defeats and three draws.

The Finns and the Danes both reached the finals impressively, Finland going unbeaten in their last seven qualifiers including play-offs while Denmark qualified automatically with seven wins and a draw from their eight group games.

But, having beaten both nations in their most recent meetings with them, England should head into their group games with confidence high.

Powell’s team qualified automatically for the finals as hosts and so have played no competitive football since going out of the World Cup at the play-off stage in November 2002.

The National Coach insists, however, that lack of competitive action will not count against her team when they step into battle in June.

She said: “The last two years have given us the chance to experiment and bring in younger players without the pressure of having to qualify for major tournaments, and that’s been a good thing for us.

“Our build-up has gone well so far and we’ve got a tough programme of build-up matches leading up to the tournament, so I’m confident we’ll be in good shape when 5 June comes around.

“We’ll aim to get off to a good start against Finland, but although we’ve got a decent record against them we won’t underestimate them because they’ve really come on over the last couple of years and they did very well to qualify.

“We beat Denmark last February but they’ve also done well since. They had a great qualifying record and they’ll be very strong, but after beating them fairly recently the girls should go into that match knowing they are capable of getting a result.

“As for Sweden, they’re a top team as their record over recent years shows. They’ll be very difficult opponents, as they always are, but they’re not unbeatable and we’ll certainly be looking for a result from that game as well.

“We’ll do our homework on all of our opponents over the next few months, but the most important thing is our own preparation. Things are looking good at the moment – and I can’t wait for the tournament to start.”