Women's EURO 2025: Players to watch in the semi-finals – Lucy Bronze, Cristiana Girelli, Ann-Katrin Berger, Clàudia Pina

The UEFA Women's EURO 2025 semi-finals match England with Italy in Geneva on Tuesday before Germany face Spain in Zurich the following night.

We look at four players who could be key to their teams earning a place in the Basel final.

Lucy Bronze (England)

Bronze's importance to England is no secret, and not just as a world-leading right-back with a full range of defensive and attacking attributes. Her experience – she is in her seventh major international tournament – and force of personality have been key to her earning more than 20 major club honours as well as driving England's decade of long competition runs.

That was underlined in Thursday's quarter-final with Sweden, when Bronze kept her head amid the Zurich chaos, scoring with 11 minutes left to begin England's comeback from two down. She then converted what proved to be the decisive penalty with the Lionesses' seventh kick of the shoot-out to earn Tuesday's meeting with Italy, set to be Bronze's sixth major semi-final with England. "Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind," said Sarina Wiegman, whose squads with Netherlands and England have hardly been short of stellar individuals. "I have never, ever seen this before in my life."

Cristiana Girelli (Italy)

In contrast to England's recent streak of semi-finals, Italy are in the last four of a major tournament for the first time since Women's EURO 1997, before around half of their squad were born. Girelli, a relatively ancient seven when Italy beat Spain to reach the final 28 years ago, is the main reason that the Azzurre have ended their wait for another last-four tie, thanks to the captain's two goals, including the 90th-minute winner, against Norway.

That made the 35 year-old the oldest player to score twice in a Women's EURO finals game, taking the record from an icon of the 1990s Italy team, Caroline Morace. Girelli, with more than 400 goals including 61 for the Azzurre in a top-level career spanning 20 years, will be the prime threat to England and might take inspiration from one of Morace's many career feats, when she made history by scoring all four goals in a 4-1 win against the Lionesses at Wembley in 1990.

Ann-Katrin Berger (Germany)

Taking on Spain and their top-scoring attack would be a formidable enough challenge for Germany if it was not for the fact that they will be missing Sjoeke Nüsken and Kathrin Hendrich through suspension in addition to the injured Giulia Gwinn and possibly Sarai Linder too. However, Germany's resilience was clear they way they got through the pulsating quarter-final with France, playing virtually all the 120 minutes with ten players and holding their nerve in an epic shoot-out, thanks in no small part to Berger.

The goalkeeper made several crucial saves to even make a shoot-out possible, then when it came to penalties converted one and stopped two – just as in the 2024 Olympic quarter-final against Canada. In the Olympics, Germany took bronze with a 1-0 win against Spain thanks to a Berger penalty save deep in added time and her inspiring presence as well as goalkeeping ability will be pivotal if they are to upset the world champions again in Zurich.

Clàudia Pina (Spain)

Pina's feats at youth level marked her out for stardom but it is in the last 12 months that she has truly come into her own, winning attention even in such stacked squads as Spain and Barcelona. Always a consistent performer for her club, whether starting or from the bench, this season she finished as UEFA Women's Champions League top scorer on ten goals, three clear of anyone else, including a number at crucial times in Barcelona's run to the final.

Having only managed two goals for Spain before this year, Pina has now cemented her place in prolific fashion. She got both in the 2-1 comeback win against England last month that took Spain to the UEFA Woman's Nations League finals, then at Women's EURO she opened her account versus Belgium before a sumptuous finish to seal the 2-0 quarter-final defeat of Switzerland that set up Wednesday's tie with Germany. Hard-working as well as skilful, she has an intuitive understanding with her squad-mates – many, of course, familiar from her club.