England will face a re-run of the Women's 2023 World Cup final after being drawn in the same group as Spain in the 2025 Women's Nations League. 

Sarina Wiegman's side will face the world and Nations League champions for the first time since the August 2023 World Cup final, where they lost 1-0 in Australia. 

The Lionesses are joined in Group A3 by Belgium, who stunned England in the previous edition of the tournament with a 3-2 win in Leuven last October, and Portugal.

During the October international break, England were beaten 4-3 by Germany, but responded with a 2-1 triumph over South Africa. 

They face Emma Hayes' United States at Wembley in an international friendly at the end of this month before taking on Switzerland in December before the tournament starts. 

“It’s an exciting draw. We have Spain – a top, world-class team – which I think is exciting because it’s another opportunity to play at that level," Wiegman said. 

“It’s really good that we play Belgium because in the last Nations League we lost when we played them away, and we really underperformed.

"We can prove to ourselves now that we can do much better than that in the two games. I’m happy with that one, they’re tough.

“Portugal are a very talented team. We played them before we went to the World Cup, and we drew with them.

"We had a lot of the ball, but we couldn’t score, and they were very dangerous on the counter-attack. They have a lot of technical players.

“There are different opponents, and I’m really looking forward to it because we’ll be challenged in different areas of the game. And of course we’ll give them challenges too.”

Sweden put one foot in the second round of the Women's Euro 2025 qualification play-offs by beating Luxembourg 4-0, while Czechia routed Belarus 8-1.

Sweden, semi-finalists at the last European Championships in 2022, were comfortable winners in the first leg of their tie, with Arsenal's Stine Blackstenius and Chelsea's Johanna Rytting Kaneryd joining Filippa Angeldahl and Evelyn Ijeh on the scoresheet.

They were not the most convincing victors of the day, though, as Czechia ran riot in Velika Gorica despite going down to 10 players when Eliska Sonntagova was sent off in the 55th minute.

Katerina Svitkova and Kamila Dubcova both scored twice for Czechia, who had six different goalscorers in their win.

Earlier on Friday, Norway all-but secured their spot in the next phase with a resounding 5-0 victory in Albania.

Arsenal's Frida Maanum opened the scoring, driving home after latching onto Caroline Hansen's flick, before centre-back Guro Bergsvand added a first-half brace to take the game away from the hosts.

Lyon great Ada Hegerberg came off the bench on the hour mark and scored with her first touch – a sumptuous volley – just 45 seconds later, then Mathilde Harviken round off the scoring in the 74th minute.

Portugal also recorded a dominant success, winning 4-1 in Azerbaijan after racing into a three-goal lead within the first 26 minutes.

Early goals from Ana Capeta, Tatiana Pinto and Diana Gomes put the visitors in command, with Diana Silva restoring their three-goal advantage late on after Nazlican Parlak had pulled one back for Azerbaijan.

There were also victories for the Republic of Ireland, who triumphed 4-0 in Georgia, and Scotland, who edged out Hungary 1-0 on their travels.

The return fixtures take place on Tuesday, with 14 ties taking place in total to decide who advances to the second round, set to take place in November and December.

Seven more places are up for grabs at the tournament, which will begin in Switzerland on July 2 and finish on July 27.

Portugal, Panama and Haiti have secured their place at the 2023 Women's World Cup as three of eight tournament debutants.

The tournament, which has been expanded to 32 teams, will be held in Australia and New Zealand in July and August.

Panama beat Paraguay 1-0 at Hamilton's Waikato Stadium on Thursday to confirm their place, while Portugal overcame Cameroon 2-1 at the same venue.

Haiti, meanwhile, defeated Chile 2-1 in Auckland.

The three nations, along with Morocco, Vietnam, Zambia, the Republic of Ireland and the Philippines are set to play in a Women's World Cup for the first time.

Indeed, Panama, Portugal and Vietnam had never previously qualified for a FIFA women's competition, while Morocco – whose men's team enjoyed a stunning run to the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar last year – became the first-ever Arab nation to be represented in FIFA's flagship women's tournament.

Haiti have been placed in Group D alongside China, Denmark, who are making their first World Cup appearance since 2007, and European champions England.

The matches in that pool will be played in Australia, as they will be in Group F, with Panama set to face Jamaica along with heavyweights Brazil and France.

Portugal will go up against Vietnam, the Netherlands and two-time reigning champions the United States in Group E, which will be played out in New Zealand.

Co-hosts New Zealand take on Norway in Auckland in the tournament's opening game on July 20.

The Netherlands must tackle France in the Euro 2022 quarter-finals after Sweden denied the defending champions top spot in Group C on Sunday.

Both teams won in their final group games, meaning they finished level on seven points and were separated by goal difference, having drawn when they faced each other earlier in the tournament.

Sweden thumped Portugal 5-0 while the Netherlands were 4-1 winners against Switzerland following a rush of late goals. Sweden finished with a plus-six goal difference, two better than the Netherlands achieved.

It means that five years on from triumphing on home soil, the Dutch must do it the hard way if they are to go deeper into this tournament, with France having caught the eye, particularly in their 5-1 rout of Italy.

France are certain to top Group D, while Sweden await the runner-up from that pool, with Italy, Iceland and Belgium all still in the hunt ahead of Monday's last round of matches.

Sweden, who sit second in the FIFA rankings, behind only the United States, showed why they should be taken seriously as contenders to win this tournament as they mauled Portugal in Leigh.

Filippa Angeldal scored twice for Sweden in the first half, and a Carole Costa own goal made it 3-0 at the break, before Kosovare Asllani's penalty and a late fifth from Stina Blackstenius completed the convincing victory. It matched Sweden's biggest victory at a European Championship.

Captain Asllani said: "We are feeling great. It was our goal to get through the group from the beginning. Today we had to win and we wanted to score as many goals as possible to win the game."

Quoted on UEFA's official website, she added: "We have a lot of respect for Portugal, they have developed a lot, but at the same time we just wanted to go all in and be as aggressive as possible in the last third."

The Netherlands were without star striker Vivianne Miedema for a second successive game after her COVID-19 positive test, but they still got the win against the Swiss at Bramall Lane.

It was a tight game until three late Dutch goals gave the scoreline a lopsided look. An own goal from Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic gave the Netherlands a 49th-minute lead, but Geraldine Reuteler levelled up four minutes later.

The teams remained locked until the 84th minute when Romee Leuchter netted the first of her late double, with Victoria Pelova also scoring in the dying moments.

The Netherlands and Sweden each survived scares as they secured first wins in Group C having drawn their Women's Euro 2022 opener.

The two pool favourites would have considered their meeting last week the toughest test of the first stage of the tournament, but Portugal and Switzerland were no pushovers on Wednesday.

Those two had played out their own entertaining draw, and Portugal repeated the two-goal comeback that rescued that point.

The Netherlands were coasting after a pair of headed goals through Damaris Egurrola and Stefanie van der Gragt, but the VAR spotted a foul on Diana Silva late in the first half that allowed Carole Costa to pull a goal back.

And Silva's header from Costa's cross had Portugal level, before the Oranje were again frustrated by a video review when Jill Roord's effort was struck off following a four-minute delay.

The defending European champions finally got their act together, though, and Danielle van de Donk arrowed into the top-right corner to earn a 3-2 Netherlands win.

It had been a similar story in the early game as Sweden beat Switzerland 2-1.

Sweden were the beneficiaries of a VAR review when Noelle Maritz went down easily and a penalty award was overturned, before Fridolina Rolfo steered the world's second-ranked side in front.

However, a fine Ramona Bachmann finish only 92 seconds later had Switzerland back on terms.

Teenage Sweden substitute Hanna Bennison restored the advantage with a 20-yard drive, yet her side were never in real comfort as they saw two late goals ruled out for offside.

Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema has tested positive for COVID-19, ruling her out of the Oranje's Group C fixture with Portugal on Wednesday.

Miedema scored 14 goals in 22 Women's Super League appearances for runners-up Arsenal last season, a tally only bettered by Chelsea's Sam Kerr (20).

The 25-year-old, widely regarded as one of the best players in the women's game, has also netted an incredible 94 goals in 112 international appearances, making her the Netherlands' all-time leading scorer.

Miedema started her country's Euro 2022 opener on Saturday, a 1-1 draw with Sweden, but coronavirus will prevent her facing Portugal.

An update from the Oranje's Twitter account read: "Vivianne Miedema has unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19 and will therefore be in isolation for the next few days. 

"When she no longer has any symptoms and tests negative, she can re-join the selection."

Miedema has scored 11 goals for the Netherlands since head coach Mark Parsons took charge last year – no Dutch player has more – and netted four times as the side won the last edition of the Women's Euros in 2017, including a brace in a 4-2 final win over Denmark.

It remains unclear whether the Arsenal forward will be back in action by the time the Netherlands finish their Group C campaign against Switzerland at Bramall Lane on Sunday.

Jill Roord rescued a point for the Netherlands as the holders made an unconvincing start to their European Championship defence, held 1-1 by Sweden in Sheffield.

Two of the pre-tournament favourites faced off at Bramall Lane, and it was Sweden, unbeaten so far in 2022, who took a 1-0 lead into the break after a low Kosovare Asllani cross found Jonna Andersson to slot a 36th-minute opener.

The Netherlands defeated the Swedes in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup, and they equalised in the 52nd minute when a fortunate deflection ran into the path of Roord who fired into the bottom-left corner.

Sari van Veenendaal in the Netherlands goal was forced off due to injury in the first half, and substitute goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar made an important stop to deny Fridolina Rolfo a late winner.

Portugal came from two goals down to finish 2-2 with Switzerland in Leigh, in the day's other Group C game.

Switzerland had not won in six matches prior to their opener, including 4-0 and 7-0 thrashings from England and Germany respectively in their pre-tournament friendlies.

But their Euros campaign looked to be off to a flyer when a 25-yard shot from Coumba Sow and a powerful header from Rahel Kiwic put the Swiss 2-0 up after just five minutes.

Portugal had not had a shot on target by the time the referee blew the half-time whistle, and needed to improve if they were to find a way back.

They did exactly that and halved the deficit after 58 minutes when Diana Gomes met a corner from the left. Her initial header was saved, but she made no mistake with the rebound to make it 2-1.

The Portuguese then got themselves on level terms just seven minutes later, when a superb cross from Tatiana Pinto picked out Jessica Silva in the box, and she smartly side-footed into the bottom corner.

Both teams hit the woodwork late on in their pursuit for a winner, with Geraldine Reuteler and Telma Encarnacao the players going close.

In the next round of fixtures on Wednesday, the Netherlands play Portugal in Leigh as they look to get a foothold in Group C, while Switzerland and Sweden face off at Bramall Lane.