2025 Women's Under-17 EURO semi-final preview: Netherlands vs France, Italy vs Norway

The UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship semi-finals are in the Faroe Islands on Wednesday with the Netherlands, France, Italy and Norway all in contention to succeed Spain as title holders.

For the first time neither Germany nor Spain are among the last four, and not since the initial edition with a group-stage format, 2013/14, has only one of the previous year's semi-finalists made it again. We preview the action in Klaksvík and Tórshavn.

Netherlands vs France

The Netherlands emerged from the group stage with a perfect record, beating Austria 4-1, Norway 2-0 and the Faroe Islands 9-0, with eight different players scoring (and all 20 squad members getting minutes). For the first time in their five semi-finals, the Netherlands are not facing Spain, who they beat on their way to finishing runners-up in 2018/19 but fell to on the other four occasions.

Coach Sherida van Bruggen already led the Netherlands to last year's Women's U19 EURO final in Lithuania, where her team beat France in the semis. However, whereas the Netherlands have lost their only past WU17 EURO final, France won in 2022/23, having previously been runners-up three times.

France are in their fourth straight semi-final, though last year as holders they lost 6-1 to Spain at this stage with Rachael Adedini coming off the bench and Médina Belaïd also in the squad, as now. Adedini equalised in the 1-1 draws against Spain and Italy before a 3-1 victory against Poland in Klaksvík on Sunday took France through as Group B runners-up.

These teams met on 2 October in an Oldenzaal friendly, with the Netherlands winning 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. As in all knockout games in this competition, a shoot-out would again be the result if scores are level after 90 minutes.

Sherida van Bruggen, Netherlands coach: "You have to be able to beat everyone to win the title. We have every confidence in that. Bring it on."

Mickaël Ferreira, France coach: "We have neither suspensions nor injuries to face a very lively Netherlands team who are dangerous in attack. We met them in October and have studied them since. This match will be very interesting."

Italy vs Norway

A first-time finalist is ensured from this tie, Italy having lost their only previous last-four appearance in 2013/14 to Germany, while Norway have suffered three defeats at this stage. Italy, who have played three times in Tórshavn so far, topped Group B as after beating Poland 4-3 and drawing 1-1 with France, they played out a pulsating 2-1 victory that ended the hopes of holders Spain, who had not failed to reach the semis since 2011/12.

In that match Giulia Galli scored twice from counterattacks to join the Netherlands' Ranneke Derks, Norway's Marie Preus and Austria's Ella Rauscha on a finals-leading three goals, while Italy keeper Matilde Robbioni had an outstanding game. The game was in contrast to their other matches this season, where Italy have looked to establish superiority in the early stages (leading Poland 3-0 at half-time).

Norway, the only team to qualify with six wins from six, opened Group A in Tórshavn by defeating the Faroe Islands 10-0 with a Preus hat-trick, Christina Herseth getting two goals and three assists. They then lost 2-0 to the Netherlands but still led Austria on goal difference going into the last game, meaning a 0-0 draw took Norway through in a match where in any case they had the better of play.

Giulia Galli, Italy forward: "We have to recover our energy and focus on this semi-final, because we want to go further in this tournament."

Eline Kulstad-Torneus, Norway coach: "Our main goal for this tournament was to qualify for the [FIFA U-17 Women's] World Cup so on our part in the semi-finals we have everything to gain. We can just fire away as we want to."