Iceland Women's Euro 2022 group contains France, Italy, and Belgium. Group D is probably the easiest group on paper, and Iceland will feel like they have a good chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, something that they have only managed once before.
Iceland Women's Euro 2022 group: Belgium
10th July
Iceland will begin their group stage with a match against the lowest ranked team in the group. The Red Flames are featuring at their second ever European Championships, having qualified for the first time in 2017. Whilst they exited at the group stage then, a 2-0 win over Norway showed they were no pushovers.
Janice Cayman is probably Belgium’s most high profile player, now plying her trade at Lyon, as well as being their highest capped player. They will also have former Manchester City striker, Tessa Wullaert who with 65 goals in 106 games is their all-time top scorer.
Iceland Women's Euro 2022 group: Italy
14th July
Iceland’s second match could be their most important in the group as they face Italy who are likely to be their closest rivals in terms of qualifying from Group D. Italy were once one of the leading lights of women’s football, but in the past couple of decades they have struggled to make an impact at the highest level. However, their squad has risen from a historic low ranking of 19th up to 14th over the past couple of years, and they could be a surprise package at the tournament.
Domestically, Italian football has shown its growth through Juventus’ successes in the Champions League, with the Italian champions progressing from a group that contained both Chelsea and Wolfsburg. Many of those players are also part of the Italian national team with Cristiana Girelli and Barbara Bonansea being two ones to watch. With both of them now in their 30s, this might be one of their last opportunities to make a real impact on an international tournament.
Iceland Women's Euro 2022 group: France
18th July
Iceland’s final group stage game is likely to be their hardest as they face France. France will be looking to bounce back from a slightly disappointing home World Cup in 2019 where they exited at the quarter-final stage to eventual winners, the United States. The French national team has not been short of drama for the past couple of years, with manager Corinne Diacre publicly falling out with a number of her star players. For that reason, they will likely be without Lyon players Eugenie LeSommer and Amandine Henry.
However, there is still plenty of optimism around this talented crop of French players. The Paris St-Germain front three will be transposed into the national team with Sandy Baltimore, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani likely to be a threat to any defence in the competition. Meanwhile left-back Selma Bacha was recently awarded the Champions League young player of the season award.
