Spain to face England, Scotland and Portugal in 2017 Women's Euro in Netherlands

News

MAR 08.11.2016

The Spanish women's national team have found out who they will be up against in the group stage at the 2017 UEFA Women's Championship, to be contested in the Netherlands next summer. Jorge Vilda's side booked their ticket to the competition in swashbuckling fashion: Vero Boquete, Vicky Losada, Silvia Meseguer and co. won all eight of their matches to qualify as emphatic group winners.

England, Scotland and Portugal now await Spain in Group D at the tournament, with La Roja set to get their challenge underway against the Portuguese on Wednesday 19 July.

A total of 16 countries will be featuring at Euro 2017, of whom five will be gracing the event for the first time. These include two of Spain's group-stage opponents, Portugal and Scotland, while Austria, Belgium and Switzerland will be the other first-timers. As for La Roja, they will be looking to improve on their showing last time round, at Sweden 2013, where they were beaten 3-1 by Norway in the quarter-finals. Spain's best-ever campaign at the tournament, meanwhile, came in 1997, when a 2-1 semi-final defeat by Italy denied the debutants a place in the final.

The official result of the #WEURO2017 draw...

Toughest group? pic.twitter.com/u1ZdMSO1il
— UEFA Women's EURO (@UEFAWomensEURO) November 8, 2016

Germany are the reigning champions and, having won the last six editions, they are very much the team to beat. However, Spain will go into the competition bullish about their chances of making an impression: they have lost just once since Vilda was appointed on 30 July 2015, when succumbing 2-1 at home to England in a friendly in October.

In the summer of 2017...

16 teams compete for the #WEURO2017 title!@VeroBoquete @AdaStolsmo @sarabjork18 @AlexScott pic.twitter.com/qwyIcowR0E
— UEFA Women's EURO (@UEFAWomensEURO) November 8, 2016

La Roja's preparations for their third appearance at the UEFA Women's Championship will continue when they take on France in Le Mans on 26 November.

The full Euro 2017 draw is as follows:

GROUP A: The Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Denmark.

GROUP B: Germany, Sweden, Russia and Italy.

GROUP C: France, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland.

GROUP D: England, Scotland, Spain and Portugal.