The Ireland Women's National Team were drawn into Group A3 in League A for the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championship qualifiers this week.Ireland will come up against France, England, and Sweden as they bid to secure qualification to the European Championships for the first time.Eileen Gleeson's squad will start their qualifying campaign in April before competing in further qualifiers in May, June, and July.
CONFIRMED | 2025 Women’s European Qualifiers
Ireland will face France, England & Sweden in Group A3 🇮🇪
Fixture details to follow in due course#COYGIG | #WEURO2025 pic.twitter.com/5C00tr9mC2— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) March 5, 2024
France, who are UEFA Nations League runners-up, last visited Dublin in July 2023 as Ireland's send-off game for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.The qualifiers will also see Ireland play current EURO winners England for the first time since 1987 and they will also come up against Sweden, who they met in the qualifiers for the last World Cup.The top two teams from Group A3 will qualify automatically for the finals tournament in Switzerland, while the third and fourth-placed teams will enter into a Play-Off series to be played in October and November / December.
Speaking after the draw, Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson accepted that the draw was part and parcel of football.
"There's no getting away from it. It is probably the hardest group our team has ever been placed into," said Gleeson.
"Would we have chosen to be in this group? Maybe not, but we're here now.
"We wanted to be in League A, we've got the toughest draw we could possibly get. Everybody in the auditorium was hoping to avoid it."
"It is what it is. It's basically a Euro semi-final for us in every single game."
The full fixture list for the qualifiers is due to be released by UEFA on Wednesday.
2025 UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS - GROUP A3FranceEnglandSwedenRepublic of Ireland
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