Women’s Euro 2025 Team Previews | Belgium
A new era started at the beginning of the year for Belgium and now they are aiming to reach the knockouts once again at the Euros after doing so in 2022.
For 13 years, Ives Serneels was in charge of the Belgian women’s national team and led them to their first few appearances at major international tournaments, which included a run to the quarter-finals for the first time at the last Euros in 2022. That run ended devastatingly for them after losing in injury time against Sweden.
Since then the team has evolved further, however they had to go through the playoffs to qualify for the 2025 tournament and did so by beating Greece to begin with, and then Ukraine after that. Six weeks later, Serneels departed and highly-rated coach Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir replaced him. Since then, Belgium have won twice with Nations League wins over England and their Group B opponents Portugal most recently.
While there have also been a few heavy defeats that they have suffered as well, they have at last been a competitive team in these last few years, having given some teams a few problems and achieved some good results, which you would think can give them a bit of optimism as they prepare themselves to navigate a challenge in Group B.
Group B opponents and fixtures:
Italy | 3rd July - 5PM BST
Spain | 7th July - 5PM BST
Portugal | 11th July - 8PM BST
It is a bit of a tough draw that has been given to the Belgian Red Flames with Italy, Spain and Portugal in their group, and of course, they have faced Portugal and Spain this year in their Nations League group, which does give us some evidence of how they may fare against those teams.
Squad:
Goalkeepers | Femke Bastiaen (Utrecht), Nicky Evrard (PSV), Lisa Lichtfus (Le Havre)
Defenders | Janice Cayman (Leicester City), Laura Deloose (Anderlecht), Isabelle Iliano (Club YLA), Jill Janssens (Hoffenheim), Sari Kees (Leicester City), Zenia Mertens (OH Leuven), Davina Philtjens (Sassuolo), Amber Tysiak (West Ham United)
Midfielders | Tine De Caigny (Anderlecht), Marie Detruyer (Inter Milan), Elena Dhont (Sassuolo), Kassandra Missipo (Sassuolo), Jarne Teulings (Feyenoord), Justine Vanhaevermaet (Everton), Sarah Wijnants (Anderlecht)
Forwards | Jassina Blom (UD Tenerife), Hannah Eurlings (OH Leuven), Mariam Toloba (Standard), Ella Van Kerkhoven (Feyenoord), Tessa Wullaert (Inter Milan)
In terms of the squad of players they will have in Switzerland, they do have a very experienced core group that they have relied on for a while now. Namely, Janice Cayman, Tina De Caigny, Justine Vanhaevermaet and their star forward Tessa Wullaert have been constant presences amongst the national team.
They do have a few younger players breaking through into the team, with Jill Janssens, Marie Detruyer and Hannah Eurlings all under the age of 22, and if recent appearances from them three in recent starting XI’s are anything to go by, then they could be the go-to players in the future for Belgium.
If there is one area for Belgium that could be an issue, it is their defence. They haven’t kept a clean sheet since beating Ukraine 2-0 in their playoff first leg back in November last year. Even before that, they only kept two other clean sheets in the whole of 2024. Having a defence that can’t help but concede goals will be a problem, so they might have to tighten things up a little in that area.
Player to Watch - Tessa Wullaert
Belgium’s one to watch has to be their star forward Tessa Wullaert, and for her nation she has continued to be an influential figure in getting them goals and wins. If there is a player that this side will be looking too in the big moments, it is Tessa Wullaert.
The 32-year-old scored five goals over the Nations League campaign in 2025, taking her total with Belgium to 92 goals in her career. She’s expected to lead the line once again with either one of Hannah Eurlings or Jarne Teulings next to her if Belgium do play in a 3-5-2 like they sometimes have done, or she can play up top on her own as well.
We saw her at her best against England back in April, where she got in behind their defence and caused a lot of problems with the runs she made, plus her composed finishing made her a clinical threat which they will be hoping she can produce again up against their Group B opposition at the Euros.
Manager - Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir
Gunnarsdóttir was appointed as Belgium’s head coach at the beginning of this year and has quickly worked to get her ideas across in the national team with the aim of wanting to progress to the knockout stages.
The Icelandic coach has amassed a good CV and reputation having made her name through club-level success with Valur and Kristianstads, the latter of which she was in charge of for 14 years. The only other experience she has had coaching internationally was as assistant coach of Iceland before becoming the head coach of their women’s under-21s.
She has been a very well-regarded coach in the last few years with a good track record, and has had previous links to managing in the WSL. It will be interesting to see how much Belgium have deployed under her coaching in a short amount of time.
How will they do?
Belgium have proven that they can compete with many of the top-level opposition, but also have shown at times that they can make things a bit difficult for themselves given the questions about them defensively.
What is in their favour is the fact that they will be aware of what they’re up against when it comes to Portugal and Spain. However, both have previously beaten them as well in the last six months. They did well to comfortably beat Portugal by three goals to nil, but because of the schedule of their group games, they may require a win over Italy to begin their tournament if they have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals again.
If they’ve worked on some of their defensive troubles then they do stand a chance of going through in this tough group. If it ends up being their downfall, then they won’t be making it too far at all. They’ve got an interesting challenge ahead of them.