Reigning women’s European champions England begin the defence of their title with a tricky test against France at the historic Letzigrund Stadion on Saturday night.
England secured their place at the European championships in Switzerland this summer by finishing second in their qualifying group.
Since then, Sarina Wiegman’s side retained their status in League A in the Nations League, as they finished in second place in League A Group 3, five points behind Spain.
The nation The Lionesses finished second to in their European qualifying group was France, as Laurent Bonadei’s finished a point clear of England.
Les Bleues also travel to Switzerland after finishing top of their Nations League group, winning all six of their group matches, setting up a tie against Germany in the semi-finals in October.
How the bookies view it: Lionesses slight favourites
England Women come into this clash as slight favourites, as BoyleSports have them at 5/4 to kick off their defence of their title with a win.
A French victory is 2/1 with the same firm, whilst the draw is 21/10.
Head to head: A win apiece
As mentioned above, these two sides faced each other in qualification for the Women’s European Championships this summer, with both recording 1-2 victories away from home.
Players to watch: Baltimore to bag again?
Sandy Baltimore arrives into this tournament in excellent goal-scoring form for her country, scoring in each of their last five Nations League matches, and the Chelsea forward is an appealing 10/3 to net anytime at BoyleSports.
Beth Mead has scored in three of her past four matches for The Lionesses, and the Arsenal forward is 11/4 at BoyleSports to find the target here.
Predicted line-ups:
French boss Laurent Bonadei has made the big calls to leave their all-time leading scorer Eugenie Le Sommer and captain Wendie Renard out of their squad.
England will be without Mary Earps and Fran Kirby after the duo retired, whilst Millie Bright ruled herself out of the squad, but Lauren James should be able to feature if required.
France Women: Peyraud-Magnin, Bacha, Lakrar, Mbock Bathy, De Almeida, Karchaoui, Toletti, Geyoro, Baltimore, Katoti, Diani
England Women: Hampton, Bronze, Williamson, Greenwood, Carter, Stanway, Walsh, Mead, Toone, Hemp, Russo
Anything else catch the eye?
As already alluded to, these two sides have already faced off twice in qualifying last year, with each team claiming a 1-2 victory each, and given the regularity with which both find the back of the net, backing goals is the way to go here.
France have found the back of the net in all bar one of their previous 20 matches in all competitions – scoring 2+ in each of their last seven – whilst The Lionesses have scored in 18 of their past 19.
Both Teams to Score pays 4/5 at Bet365, and Over 2.5 Goals is 20/21 at BoyleSports, and both appeal in what should be an entertaining clash in Zurich on Saturday night.
GambleAware