England v Cymru: EURO 2025 preview

Cymru and England go head-to-head in St. Gallen on Sunday evening (8pm) with all four teams in Group D yet to confirm if they will progress to the quarter-final or exit the tournament.

The permutations for Cymru are simple. Rhian Wilkinson’s side need to win by four clear goals and rely on France to beat the Netherlands. Any other scenario will see Cymru leave the competition after three group games. Meanwhile, a win for England, the current holders, would guarantee their place in the last eight.

“The first game, I felt like it was kind of a shock and maybe we didn’t demonstrate or display what Wales can do,” said Cymru striker Kayleigh Barton to UEFA at the team training ground in Weinfelden. “But one thing I know about this team is that every single game we’re growing, and you could see the areas where we’ve grown. We were more compact, more solid against France.”

England went into the tournament as one of the favourites despite injuries and international retirements disrupting their preparations. A few of the squad that won the tournament at Wembley three years ago remain in place and their experience proved invaluable as they responded to their 2-1 defeat against France by beating the Netherlands 4-0 in Zurich.

“England are a very, very good team with very good players,” explained Cymru’s Jess Fishlock to UEFA. “Full of experience and the state of the group makes this game even bigger with regards to what could happen, which always makes it more fun too, right? So, I expect a very difficult game against a very, very good side, but I think out of all the teams, we probably know England a little better. So, I’m just really excited for the game, honestly.”

Sarina Wiegman is the hugely successful Dutch coach who leads England. Wiegman guided the Netherlands to EURO glory in 2017 before repeating the achievement with England in 2022 and will be targeting a third successive title this summer with her talented squad. A serial winner, the 55-year-old has a contract with the FA that takes her through to the 2027 World Cup.

England are also expected to line-up in a 4-3-3 formation with the midfield supporting the front line at every opportunity. Lauren James is a key player for England both with and without the ball and scored twice against the Netherlands. James is quickly emerging as the complete footballer, and at 23, is a more mature figure now than at the last World Cup and is already looking like one of the standout players of the tournament.

“I think they’re going to come out flying,” Barton added. “I think they’re going to really try and move us, break us down, but, like we did in the France game, it’s about how we can just hold our ground and use our strengths against their weaknesses. That’s what Rhian [Wilkinson] and the coaching team are there to do, to make sure we’re fully prepared stepping into that game.”

The two nations have previously met in two World Cup qualifying campaigns, England won both games that first campaign ahead of the 2015 finals, but Cymru would achieve a memorable 0-0 draw against their rivals ahead of the next edition of the competition at Southampton in 2018. However, England would win the return match in Newport 3-0 on the final day to book their place at the finals ahead of Cymru.

The 0-0 draw between England and Cymru was a pivotal result for former head coach Jayne Ludlow and her squad. “I think everybody knows that game was huge back then,” Fishlock added. “I think we had part-time players and full-time workers against a very good English team that were able to have all the investment and full-time players at high levels. That game was huge for us, it really was kind of like a bouncing board for us to really believe in what we can do.”

Barton ran the front line alone that night and also reflected on the significance of that match. “Stepping on that pitch, it was important, because I felt like everyone was so focused on their job and what their roles looked like, but it was a platform for us to play against a team who are really ranked up high in the world. I just remember afterwards, the small margins, our performance. For a small nation like us, it is about small margins and how we can build so that eventually we can be like those top teams.”