Lauren James lights up the Lionesses' title defence - but it's a nightmare for the Netherlands: Winners & losers of the Euro 2025 group stage as Alexia Putellas closes in on another Ballon d'Or

One of the most heartening stories of the Euro 2025 group stage was the success of the home nation. Switzerland came into this tournament with just one win from their last nine games, a stretch which included two defeats to Norway and two draws with Iceland, both of whom they were going to meet in the group stages. Though Group A was wide open and the Swiss would have the home support, it was still hard to confidently back them to deliver and reach the knockout stages of this competition for the first time.

How they have performed has been a pleasant surprise, then. La Nati were often passive in the Nations League fixtures that occupied the first six months of their year but they have been anything but in this tournament, providing entertainment as well as results on their way to the last eight.

"It's incredible," Switzerland captain Lia Walti told ITV after the win over Iceland. "Before the game, I probably cried about three times because, when we came to the stadium, seeing all the fans, seeing all the videos of the city, how amazing people are to support us, it's something we've never experienced before in Switzerland. I hope it's going to do a lot in Switzerland to keep pushing women's football in the right direction."

It's been an absolute disaster of a tournament for the Netherlands. Winners of this title in 2017, they were expected to be a contender in Switzerland but instead didn't even make it out of the group stage, conceding nine goals across damning defeats to England and France to end their campaign before the knockout rounds.

There were signs that this was coming. Andries Jonker had been prickly with the media in the build-up to his final summer in charge, even appearing on a podcast two days before the Euros began to admit that he wondered if he should even go ahead and coach the team, having known since April that his contract wouldn't be renewed. "You talk to people around you and there’s no one around me that says that I need to do this," he explained. "They all say: ‘You shouldn’t do this. Stay at home, let them figure it out'.”

The chaos continued into the Euros. Sherida Spitse, the team's captain, criticised Jonker for those comments; Danielle van de Donk said she was fit to start against England, after Jonker had said she wasn't; Damaris Egurrola told De Volkskrant that she was being deployed in a role that didn't suit her, and that she was getting "the short end of the stick".

Really, it's perhaps no surprise things didn't work out for the Dutch, who will look forward to a fresh start under England assistant Arjan Veurink, set to be the Oranje's new head coach, later this year.

Alexia Putellas came into this tournament as the front-runner for the Ballon d'Or and she has only enhanced that status with her performances in Switzerland so far. The Barcelona midfielder has been the best player on show through the first three rounds of action and her incredible level is only improving Spain's chances of winning the title, which will do her Golden Ball chances no harm either.

It's been three years since Putellas suffered a devastating ACL injury on the eve of Euro 2022, when she was in the form of her life. She had just enjoyed another remarkable campaign in Catalunya, one which would pave the way for her to scoop up a second successive Ballon d'Or, but she could only watch as Spain crashed out in the quarter-finals.

Now, after some serious injury woes, she's leading La Roja's charge for a first European title and arguably playing better than ever before.

There have been quite different fortunes for the other two-time Ballon d'Or winner in Spain's ranks. Aitana Bonmati was right up there as a serious contender for the Golden Ball as the Euros approached and while she was perhaps just behind her team-mate in that race, Bonmati has previous of taking over major international tournaments. Do so again in Switzerland and perhaps the odds would swing in her favour.

However, as it has transpired, Bonmati will be glad just to be on the pitch at all. The 27-year-old was stunningly hospitalised with viral meningitis just two days before Spain were set to fly out to Switzerland and although she was discharged a few days later, it has left her playing a much smaller role in the group stage. She'll be desperate to make her mark on the knockout stages - not so much for her hopes of individual glory, but in order to boost La Roja's chances of winning this tournament.

It's been 12 years since Norway last reached the knockout stages of the European Championships, with disappointments at 2017 and 2022 following the remarkable run to the final they enjoyed at Euro 2013. However, this star-studded side has finally got over the hump this summer, progressing to the quarter-finals after winning all three of their group stage fixtures.

A quick look through Norway's squad and it's remarkable to think that this team has underwhelmed so much in the past decade. Ada Hegerberg is a Ballon d'Or winner, Caroline Graham Hansen is a runner-up and they are just two of four players to have lifted the Champions League trophy, alongside the likes of Ingrid Engen and Frida Maanum. Then there are the likes of Guro Reiten and Maren Mjelde, stalwarts during Chelsea's dominance in England, and the Manchester United trio of Lisa Naalsund, Celin Bizet and Elisabeth Terland. It's a squad bursting with quality.

That has only added to the frustration of recent major tournaments, where Norway have consistently underperformed. Now, though, they've ended that wait for a place in the knockouts of the Euros and, with Italy up next, there's a real opportunity to reach the semi-finals.

Denmark might be on a bit of a Norway trend themselves. After reaching the final of Euro 2017, the team has now been eliminated in the group stages at back-to-back editions of this competition, with them not even managing to collect a single point in 2025. After enjoying such an incredible individual season at club level, where she was the star of the show as Bayern Munich won a domestic treble, it was a sad way for the 2024-25 campaign to end for Pernille Harder.

Now 32 years old, it might have been her last chance to grace one of these big stages while still at the peak of her powers, too. Given the rough draws Denmark have had in recent times, Harder hasn't quite had that moment to show a big audience what she is all about, with her performances at Euro 2017 coming just before women's football enjoyed a really global boom. Now, it's fair to wonder if she ever will, which is a shame given she deserves to be the transcendent household name that players like Putellas and Bonmati are, and major tournaments so often present the route to that destination.

Lauren James' presence at this tournament was in serious doubt for several months. After picking up a hamstring issue in early April, the winger wasn't seen again in the 2024-25 season, missing all of Chelsea's remaining fixtures and England's final two games of this year's Nations League. Sarina Wiegman still picked her in her squad for Euro 2025 and spoke glowingly of the hard work the 23-year-old was putting in to be fit, but it was going to be close.

Fortunately, everything has worked out wonderfully. James showed her sharpness in a lively cameo in England's send-off friendly in late June and then, somewhat surprisingly, was named to the Lionesses' starting XI for their opening game against France. Despite defeat, she looked bright, and she has excelled with Wiegman's tactical tweaks since.

Having lit up the World Cup two years ago, James is now doing exactly that at the Euros, putting a season plagued by injuries well and truly behind her in what is a serious boost to England's title chances.

Some will argue that Andree Jeglertz didn't do a poor job with Denmark, that he actually improved their attack and that the team's return of no points from their three group stage games - which represents the nation's worst-ever Euros - is a little misleading. "It's probably more the outside world and the media that amplify it. It's a good story," Harder said, asked about that historic failure. "We know where we are in the process and how we've developed."

Still, it's hard not to feel like Jeglertz's stock has taken a bit of a hit because of this tournament, after which he was already set to leave his role as national team boss. He's a very successful manager with some great achievements on his CV but he is not well-known in England, where his next job will be, as head coach of Manchester City. As such, it does feel like he will arrive in the Women's Super League with a bit of a point to prove and maybe even a little bit of extra pressure on his shoulders, following this underwhelming farewell to Denmark.

After breaking through the glass ceiling somewhat at the 2019 Women's World Cup, Italy have been incredibly disappointing in the last few major tournaments. At Euro 2022, they were a popular 'dark horse' pick, drawn in a group with France, Iceland and Belgium. However, they fell short of even reaching the knockout rounds. Similar happened a year later, when South Africa came from behind to defeat the Azzurre and progress from the group stages at their expense. It was an even more disappointing failure, one that led to a change of coach.

Under new boss Andrea Soncin, things have changed. Italy have been perhaps the most exciting national team in women's football in the last two years, consistently participating in goal-fests against the elite nations and often even winning them, with results against Spain, Germany and the Netherlands all under their belts in recent times. They felt like the perfect 'dark horse' pick - again.

There was some anxiety on show in the group stage, perhaps owing to recent failures. Opening with a nervy 1-0 win over Belgium, Portugal's late equaliser on matchday two meant Italy could fall at the first hurdle again. But they didn't. Despite a 3-1 loss to Spain, the Azzurre will be in the quarter-finals again for the first time at a major tournament since 2019 - and there is a real opportunity for them to go further, with Norway their opponents.

There are not many players in the sport who have endured worse injury luck than Giulia Gwinn. Aged 26, she has endured two ACL tears, the second of which ruled her out of the 2023 Women's World Cup entirely. Fans could be forgiven, then, for fearing the worst when the Germany captain went down with a knee injury in the opening round of group games.

The good news is that it wasn't an ACL injury. The bad news is that it is a medial ligament injury that is severe enough for her tournament to have already ended. Germany came into Euro 2025 as a serious front-runner but to lose their skipper and star full-back is a huge blow, one made even worse by Carlotta Wamser's red card in defeat to Sweden, after the 21-year-old had been playing well in Gwinn's place.

Whisper it quietly but it could actually, finally, be Sweden's year. After reaching the semi-finals in six of their last seven major tournaments, collecting two bronze medals and two silvers for their efforts, it might be in Peter Gerhardsson's final summer in charge that they get over the line. It's great, then, to see that Fridolina Rolfo has recovered from injury in time to participate.

The 31-year-old has had her fair share of bad luck with injuries over the years, previously describing her battle against them as being like a 'war'. Perhaps the most heart-breaking one was at the Olympics in 2016, when she fractured her metatarsal in the shock quarter-final triumph over the United States, meaning she was only able to watch from the sidelines as Germany beat Sweden in the gold medal match.

Had she missed Euro 2025, though, and Sweden were to actually deliver success, that would've been devastating - and it was looking like the former would be the case, after Rolfo sustained a foot injury in her team's final competitive match before the tournament, in early June. The timeline was tight, Gerhardsson had called up a replacement just in case and Rolfo was in a race, which she won.

Her comeback was made all the more complete when she scored from the spot against Germany last Saturday and now she'll hope she can play an even bigger role in the knockouts as many in this remarkable crop of players look to make what could be their last shot at a major international title a successful one.

It's difficult to know how harshly to judge Iceland for their recent disappointments at major tournaments. After all, it is a nation of less than 400,000 people. It's incredible that they even qualify for these events. Still, this squad boasts representatives from some of Europe's biggest clubs, including Bayern Munich and Inter, and it is one that has real ambition to succeed.

After narrowly missing out on qualification for the quarter-finals at Euro 2022, Thorsteinn Halldorsson's side were not particularly close this time around. Finishing bottom of their group and without a point to their name, it does feel like Iceland could have, and should have, been more competitive in a wide open Group A. This will go down as a missed opportunity, that much is for sure.

Despite both being eliminated in the group stage, this was a good summer for the two debutantes, in Poland and Wales. The former got to enjoy a historic first win at the Women's Euros, beating Denmark 3-2 in a thriller on matchday three, with captain and star striker Ewa Pajor able to add a major tournament goal to her glowing CV. Wales didn't get to celebrate a result quite like that, but they had two particularly big moments that will be long remembered by the incredible support that followed them to Switzerland. That both involved Jess Fishlock, too, was so fitting.

Fishlock is the greatest women's player Wales have ever produced. She is one of the best players in the history of the NWSL, the top-flight in the United States, and she has twice won the Champions League. With her country, she has also smashed plenty of records, with no man or woman having more caps or goals for Wales. The only thing missing was a major tournament.

After enduring so many heartbreaking failures and even contemplating retirement, Fishlock got to tick that box this summer, she got to score Wales' first-ever goal at a major tournament on the women's side, becoming the oldest goal-scorer in competition history, and she produced a wonderful run and pass to tee up Hannah Cain to find the back of the net against England, too. It was a delight to see this great champion, aged 38, finally getting to enjoy herself on this stage.