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

The UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship semi-finals are on Thursday with France, Norway, Germany and Spain all in contention to succeed the Netherlands as title holders at Belfast's National Football Stadium at Windsor Park.

Germany and Spain return after neither featured at this stage for the first time last year, and 2025 finalists Norway take on a France side who are in the semi-finals for a fifth successive edition. We preview the action in Northern Ireland.

France vs Norway

France hit ten goals without reply across their first three matches before conceding late in their closing 4-1 win over Finland, completing a perfect group stage following a 5-0 victory over Poland – the largest winning margin at the finals so far – and 1-0 defeat of Spain despite not starting several key players.

Coach Franck Plenecassagne guided France to victory at last year's UEFA U16 development tournament in Portugal, where they recorded wins against Spain and Germany, the latter featuring a goal by Méhisane Zidi, who scored the only goal against Spain this time around.

Fellow forward Rachael Adedini required 20 minutes to score in a third straight Matchday 1 game at the finals with a strike against Poland; the three-goal competition top scorer needs one more to break Germany striker Shekiera Martinez's all-time record of ten goals at the finals.

Adedini is part of a squad aiming to end a run of two successive semi-final defeats, losing on penalties to eventual champions the Netherlands in 2025 and exiting against Spain in 2024.

Norway are in the semi-finals for a fourth time in seven appearances, having returned to the final four for the first time in eight years with a win over Italy at this stage in 2025, current captain Isa Lund starting on that occasion.

Following a 3-1 opening defeat by Germany, Norway scored twice inside the first 20 minutes in their 3-0 win against Northern Ireland – including a Lund goal – before pipping England to a semi-final spot with a 1-1 draw.

Lund and her fellow defenders will be hoping to keep out Adedini, who scored a hat-trick in France's 8-0 win in this fixture in the 2024 group stage, and avenge a 1-0 loss at the 2022 finals.

Forward Mie Hoem, who came on as a substitute in last year's final, is also involved again having scored three goals in five appearances during qualifying.

Franck Plenecassagne, France coach: "We are satisfied with everyone's attitude; they all had playing time to actively contribute to this qualification. We scored ten goals and conceded only one, so the overall result is really positive. Now we enter a new [stage] with even greater determination and the will to qualify for the final.”

Elise Brotangen, Norway coach: "When you see the teams that are in the semi-finals, I think we're the joker, as we call it. But I love that situation, that's great. We have been watching France in the games here, of course; they're physically and individually strong. The group we have are fantastic. It's the Viking mentality."

Germany vs Spain

Record eight-time champions Germany had only once missed the finals before failing to reach both of the last two tournaments and they made up for lost time by starting with a 3-1 win against Norway, followed by a 1-0 defeat of England through captain Johanna Hebben's composed penalty to seal first place in Group A.

That meant Germany could afford a closing 1-0 defeat by host nation Northern Ireland on their way to a 13th semi-final appearance – one behind Spain's record – despite hitting the woodwork four times in a game Sabine Loderer has told her side not to dwell on.

Former Under-16 coach Loderer took charge shortly after Germany won the 2022 final on penalties against Spain with the help of an 88th-minute equaliser and lost the same fixture in the semi-finals at that year's World Cup, the decisive goal arriving in the 90th minute.

Spain started with a 4-0 win against Finland before that defeat by France despite having seven of the nine attempts on targets between the teams, then beat Poland 4-1 in a decider. Their group stage goals all came from different players including Rocío Elaine, who scored four times in five games during qualifying.

A title winner in Mexico following a spell at club level in Japan, coach Mila Martínez led Spain to a perfect group stage at the 2025 World Cup before a defeat on penalties by France in the last 16. She then oversaw an unbeaten EURO qualifying campaign in which her side averaged five goals a game before a 0-0 draw with Portugal in March.

Iraia Fernández, Vera Molina, Candela Rodríguez and Carlota Chacón were part of the squad who won the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off in 2025.

Spain won their last meeting with Germany at the finals 2-0 during the 2023 group stage and are targeting a 40th victory of all time at the tournament. Germany collected their 30th win by beating England.

Sabine Loderer, Germany coach: "We know the Spanish team and have played against them several times with this age group. They're a very strong team with many excellent players who often attack through the centre and are very versatile. We want to counter them in our own way, as we've already shown defensively in this tournament. With the intensity and sharpness with which our girls approach the games – whether in attack or defence – the Spanish team will have problems."

Mila Martínez, Spain coach: "Germany are a great team, so it's going to be a great match in a semi-final. There are details we can attack. We have an incredible group of players – the coaching staff talk about it a lot. They always play with so much enthusiasm, desire and ambition and they know how to bounce back from any situation. It's a very ambitious team and they have a great chance of bringing us a lot of joy."