England & Wales bid to survive toughest group of all

England and Wales are in Group D along with France and the Netherlands

England and Wales are flying the flag for the home nations at Euro 2025 this summer.

But the two teams have found themselves paired together in the trickiest group, alongside the Netherlands and France.

That means three of the four teams in the group are in the top 11 of Fifas world rankings.

Wales take on the Dutch (17:00 BST on Saturday) in a game you can watch and listen to across the BBC, before England face France (20:00), with radio commentary on 5 Live and BBC Sounds and live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app.

But what makes Group D so difficult and who is most likely to make it through?

Group D, according to Netherlands boss Andries Jonker, is the "toughest group of all" at Euro 2025.

And Opta have backed up his claim, with the stat experts supercomputer predicting theres a 37% chance a Group D team will win the tournament.

Thats 7% higher than the second-favourite group.

"Its the most lopsided draw I have ever seen," football journalist Tom Garry told the Football Daily podcast.

"The doomsday scenario for England and Wales is that they could both be out before they play each other in the third game."

Sarina Wiegman led the Netherlands to Euros success in 2017 before guiding the Lionesses to the trophy in 2022

England arrive in Switzerland as the defending champions while the Netherlands won the previous tournament in 2017 - both were managed by Sarina Wiegman.

Both teams won all three of their group-stage games when they won the title.

The defending champions have never failed to progress past the group stage at a European Championship.

"Straight from the beginning, we need to be really sharp and strong but thats also the case for the other teams," England head coach Wiegman said when the draw was made.

The Lionesses have won their past 14 group-stage matches at major tournaments while the Netherlands are unbeaten in their past 13.

Jonker said: "This is the toughest group of all with three top countries. We have to accept this and go for the challenge and believe in ourselves.

"We are not coming to participate, we think we can beat every country."

France have never won a major trophy but they have an impressive group-stage record, progressing in each of their past eight major tournament appearances.

And Laurent Bonadeis team have form on their side. They are on an eight-game winning run and have only conceded two goals since February while they last tasted defeat in December - to world champions Spain.

England full-back Lucy Bronze says Saturdays opening match between the sides is not to be missed.

"Both teams are full of exciting attacking talent and I think its the game everyone is going to be watching because its surely the most exciting group game coming into a Euros," right-back Bronze said.

Les Bleues left-back Selma Bacha also said she is "very happy" to play England first, adding: "Thats going to put us straight into the thick of things for the Euros."

However, this will be the first time since 2005 that France have been at a Euros or World Cup without both Wendie Renard and all-time leading scorer Eugenie le Sommer, who were controversially left out of Bonadeis side.

"The experience and the amount of caps that Renard and Le Sommer have is absolutely huge," said former England forward Ellen White.

"To have that completely wiped from your squad is a really interesting dynamic to go into this tournament."

Former Scotland defender Jen Beattie said: "Theyve obviously seen something and made a big decision, and they were also quoted saying insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Wales beat the Republic of Ireland in Decembers play-offs to qualify for Euro 2025

Competing in their first major tournament and as the lowest ranked team in the competition, Wales are not only the underdogs for Group D but for the whole of Euro 2025.

"People can call us underdogs and write us off as much as they want but our belief in ourselves will be the most important thing," said Wales forward Jess Fishlock.

"I think we will embrace it and we will use it as an advantage."

Despite their lower ranking, Wales have shown they can compete with top teams under coach Rhian Wilkinson, claiming two impressive draws against Sweden earlier this year.

"It absolutely terrifies me playing Wales in the last game and trying to get points because it will be such a hard game," White said.

"It will be a European final for Wales. Theyve got enthusiasm, you dont know what to expect, theyre competitive, the fans are going to be amazing. Thats going to be a really hard test for England."

However, history isnt on Wales side. Only one of the past six teams making their debut in the Euros have made it out of the group.