Women's EURO 2025: Belgium coach Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir on getting the best from the Red Flames

Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir took charge of Belgium in January 2025, taking over from Ives Serneels, who had been in charge of the Red Flames since 2011.

Having taken up her first coaching post in her native Iceland while she was in her early 20s, Gunnarsdóttir won a series of domestic titles in charge of Valur Reykjavík. She moved to Sweden in 2009, and coached Kristianstad in the Damallsvenskan for 15 campaigns, twice being named as the league's coach of the season. In 2024, she was awarded the Order of the Falcon for her services to Icelandic football.

On her goals for Women's EURO 2025

People can expect to see very clear principles in the way that we play and a team spirit with a lot of energy and intensity, and a team that never gives up.

Belgium went all the way from the group stages [at] the last tournament to the quarter-finals, and that’s an experience that the country has already felt and been involved in. That’s something that we will talk about experiencing again. Getting out of the group would be a major achievement for Belgium and that’s something we are aiming to do.

On her coaching philosophy

I am very much into building the right culture to be able to perform, and I think culture can beat everything. My philosophy is a lot about creating that and I've been working with Belgium for a short time, so that is something we have been prioritising – how we behave as a group and how we show up as a team for our country. Tactically for the EURO, we still have a lot of details and principles to implement and work on, and we need to use the time well.

The principles that I want to implement are many, but I have to pick out those few that I know I can work with and get effective for the EURO, and I feel like that is going really well and everybody is feeling inspired about something new.

Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir and her Belgium team celebrate victory against England in AprilPhotonews via Getty Images

On getting the best out of Janice Cayman and Tessa Wullaert as well as younger Belgium players

I love that mix. I really did the same thing on a club level. I love the mix of young talents and older players because I think the most experienced players can give so much to the youth to help them to develop and to be shaped as players and people.

That’s something that I’m really interested in and just getting to know the people and seeing how the mix can become a really good team. And that’s what I see with the mix of my experienced players and the younger players, that it’s going to be a great mix of a group that can help each other to develop in both ways.