Women's EURO draw guide: Group A
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Article summary
Hosts Netherlands open against 2013 runners-up Norway before facing Denmark and neighbours Belgium: here is all you need to know about UEFA Women's EURO Group A.
Article top media content
Article body
- The teams: Netherlands (hosts), Norway, Denmark, Belgium
- The games (CET)
Sunday 16 July
Netherlands v Norway (Utrecht) 18:00
Denmark v Belgium (Doetinchem) 20:45
Thursday 20 July
Norway v Belgium (Breda) 18:00
Netherlands v Denmark (Rotterdam) 20:45
Monday 24 July
Belgium v Netherlands (Tilburg) 20:45
Norway v Denmark (Deventer) 20:45
- Three things to know
• Hosts the Netherlands will open the tournament against Norway and will hope to improve on their 1-0 defeat of four years ago in Sweden.
• Two-time champions Norway appointed Martin Sjögren as coach in December after the departure of Roger Finjord but also changed manager ahead of the 2013 finals, and were runners-up under Even Pellerud.
• Belgium are making their debut in any women's final tournament while Denmark reached the last four for the fifth time in 2013.
- Reaction
Arjen van der Laan, Netherlands coach (replaced in January by Sarina Wiegman)
To open against Norway is very beautiful for the tournament and for us it's good to immediately have an opponent where everything has to go well and where we can show immediately what kind of good tournament we're going to play.
For the Dutch football association, the goal is the semi-final. We sat down with the team and we decided that we wanted to aim as high as posible. That's to do with the circumstances – the tournament being in our home country and having our own fans.
Heidi Støre, Norway head of women's football
It was an OK draw for us, and to be quite honest, I think all the groups are quite equal, but we're satisfied – four teams that know each other very well and have played a lot of games against each other. To play the hosts here in the Netherlands will be a very good experience.
Nils Nielsen, Denmark coach
It's fun [to play the hosts], and also Norway, our neighbours – we know them very well. Belgium, we played them last year and we are playing them again this month in a friendly. They are good friends of ours. It's going to be a tough group to qualify from, but it's an even one. Anything could happen.
Ives Serneels, Belgium coach
It's a very nice result. We have a match against the Netherlands, our neighbours, and for our supporters, we play one in Breda and one in Tilburg, which is not so far from Belgium. So yes, I think we must be happy.