History
The Women's Euros was officially created in 1982. There had been some events that were arranged unofficially before this date, such as the Euros that were held in Italy in 1967 and in 1979, but these are not recognised by UEFA. In 1982, UEFA decided to launch an international competition for European women's football teams. In that year, the teams started the qualification, with the competition proper set to be held in 1984. The first tournament did not have a specific host. The four entrants: Denmark, England, Italy and Sweden all hosted matches. The four teams were drawn and started in the semi-finals, which comprised of two-leg fixtures. England faced Denmark and won the first and second legs 2-1 and 1-0, respectively. Italy faced Sweden, and lost at home 2-3, and when they travelled to Sweden, the Swedish team beat them 2-1, to finish with an aggregate of 5-3.
England and Sweden played in a two-legged final, and after Sweden won at home 1-0 and England won the second match 1-0 at home, the match went to extra time and then penalties, where Sweden won 4-3.
In the following edition, held in 1987, the four entrants were Norway, Sweden, Italy and England. Norway was chosen to be the host for the competition, which was played in a single leg knockout format. Norway and Sweden won the semi-finals against Italy and England. Italy then beat England in the third place playoff, and Norway beat Sweden to win their first Euro Championship.
The competitions were held every two years after the 1987 Euros. In 1989, West Germany hosted the competition, and Italy, Sweden and Norway all qualified for the finals. West Germany faced Norway in the finals and won the match 4-1, becoming first time champions.
In 1991, Germany, now reunified, returned to the competition alongside Norway, Denmark and Italy. Germany and Norway made it to the finals for a second time, and Germany won the game again. In 1993, the same teams qualified for the competition but this time the hosts, Italy, made the finals alongside Norway. Norway beat Italy 1-0 to win their second title. In 1995, there was no host for the competition, and Germany, England, Norway and Sweden all qualified. Germany won the Euros for a third time when they beat Sweden 3-2 in the final.
In 1997, the tournament was jointly hosted by Norway and Sweden, and it was expanded to have 8 finalists. The 8 teams were drawn into two groups of four that played in a single leg robin round, and the two top teams advanced to the semi-finals. Spain, France, and Russia qualified for their first Euros in this year, joining Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Italy. Italy, Spain, Sweden and Germany all finished in first or second place and qualified for the semi-finals, where Italy and Spain were paired and Sweden and Germany were paired. Germany and Italy won their matches, and Germany went on to win the finals and their fourth title.
The competition was delayed by a year, and the next edition was held in 2001. Germany hosted the competition, and after the group stage, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany qualified for the semi-finals. Germany beat Norway and Sweden beat Denmark in the semi-finals. In the finals, Germany clinched victory against Sweden after scoring a goal in extra time.
The following competition was held in 2005, four years after the previous competition. England hosted the competition, and the group stage ended with Sweden and Finland topping Group A and Germany and Norway topping Group B. Germany faced Finland and Norway faced Sweden. Both teams won their matches and Norway and Germany found themselves in the finals for a third time. Germany won the final 3-1, to win their 6th European Championship.
In 2009, the competition was held in Finland, and the Euros were expanded from 8 teams to 12. The Netherlands, Ukraine, and Iceland qualified for the European Championship for the first time in this competition, and the teams were drawn into three groups of 4, where the top three in the harder groups and the top two in the easier group advanced to the quarter finals. In this competition, England and Germany faced each other in the finals, and the Germans put an end to England's hope of silverware after thrashing them 6-2 in the finals.
Sweden hosted the competition in 2013, which featured the first appearance of Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland and Switzerland. Germany made the finals once more, where they beat Norway, again, to win their 8th European Championship.
In 2017, the competition was expanded once more to have 16 finalists. In this competition, Germany made the quarterfinals but were knocked out by Denmark, who went all the way to the finals. There, they met the Netherlands who had also never played in a final before. Netherlands, the hosts of the competition, beat Denmark 4-2, to clinch their first European Championship.
Structure
In the current structure of the Women's Euros, there are 16 finalists who are drawn into four groups of 4. Here, the teams play in a single leg robin round against the other teams in their group, and the winners and runners up of each group advance to the knockout stage. The winners play the runners up in Groups A and B, and Groups C and D. The knockout rounds are single legs, where the teams go to extra time and penalties if there is no winner after 90 minutes.
The whole tournament usually lasts just over three weeks, with two matches played daily in the group stage, and then in the knockout stages the matches are played daily, with short breaks between each round.
Fun Facts
Germany holds the record for the most goals scored in a tournament, when they scored 21 goals in 2009. They played 6 matches, including the finals, setting a 3.5 average goals scored per match.
Birgit Prinz, the former German attacking footballer, has the record for the most appearances in the final tournaments, playing in 61 matches. She leads the all-time top scoring record with her former teammate Inka Grings, with 10 goals each.
The highest scoring game in the tournament came in 2022 when England beat Norway 8-0, although the highest scoring game in the qualifiers is far higher. Spain vs Slovenia in 1995, Norway vs Slovakia in 1997, and Germany vs Kazakhstan in 2013 all finished 17-0.
Popular Bets
Match Result
This is the simplest bet, as it is on the result of a single match. For example, if there were to be a game between the women’s national teams of Germany and Sweden, there will be bets for Germany to win, Sweden to win, or for the game to end in a tie.
Handicaps
Handicaps are bets where a punter can modify a team’s score with negative or positive handicaps, which will either increase the risk and their betting odds, or reduce the risk and their betting odds. When a handicap is chosen, the number will be added to the team’s score at the end of the match, and the bet will require the team to be the winner once the adjusted scoreline is taken into account.
Total Goals
With total goals, punters can bet on how many goals they think will be scored in a single game. The bet uses the over/under format, where a betting line can be chosen and then punters place a bet on the game to finish with over or under the number of goals defined by the line.
Game Props
Game props can include some intriguing bets to place, some of which have massive odds. The bets with longer odds include those such as correct score, first half/second half result, result and winning margin, and more. There may be other bets that relate to details such as which team will score the opening goal, will a certain player score during the game, which team will have more corners, and more.
Live Bets
As well as all the bets mentioned above, there will also be some special live bets that relate to events as they happen in a match. These can include which team will score the next goal, will a team score two goals in the half, will a certain player score the next goal, and so on.