Euro 2025 demonstrates the strength of women's football

The Uefa Women's Euro 2022 tournament was already a resounding sporting and social success when it was held in England. However, with unprecedented stadium attendance records, the recently concluded 2025 tournament in Switzerland has raised the bar even higher and set new standards across the board. Beyond numbers, the tournament was a triumph. The atmosphere was extraordinary both inside and outside the eight stadiums: with enthusiastic fans, lively streets, packed venues and a lack of incidents.

Never before had the stands been so colourful during each and every one of the 31 matches. Tickets sold out for every match except two. These full arenas completely contradict the feeling of emptiness in most of the Spanish stadiums that host the Women's League every weekend, despite Iberdrola's commitment. And this European women's championship felt entirely different from the coldness, remoteness and chaos that dominated the recent men's Club World Cup held in the USA, an event sponsored by Fifa that requires improvement in its next editions.

As Uefa explains in its report, advance ticket sales suggested that the total of 574,875 fans in the stadiums to watch the Women's Euro in England in 2022 would be surpassed in Switzerland, and this happened with two matches to spare. A considerable achievement, especially considering that in the previous edition the record attendance was boosted by the opening match at Old Trafford (68,871 spectators) and the final at Wembley (87,192).

In Switzerland, the average per match exceeded 20,000 for the first time and the total attendance record reached 657,291. The record number of fans in the stadiums in the group stage was also smashed, rising from 369,314 in England to 461,582 in Switzerland.

Excluding the hosts, the record crowd for a group stage match was also broken. It was Germany-Denmark (2-1) at St.Jakob-Park in Basel, watched live by 34,165 spectators, almost 12,000 more than those who saw the Netherlands-Switzerland match in Sheffield Wednesday three years ago, a record that has been broken six times at this year's European Championship. In fact, for the group stage match in Basel, no fewer than 17,000 tickets were sold in Germany alone, a record for a non-host country.

There was also a record crowd for a quarter-final: 34,128 fans attended the France-Germany match in Basel. The attendance of 29,734 at the Spain-Switzerland match in Bern set a new record, before the French and German fans surpassed that mark 24 hours later. And an unprecedented 112,535 spectators watched the four quarter-final matches from the stands.

On the pitch, the tournament organised by the Swiss Confederation was the most prolific in terms of goals, with no fewer than 106 - including 89 in the group stage (also the highest-scoring). For the first time, the 100-goal mark was passed. In addition, Spain's 6-2 win over Belgium on matchday two equalled the eight-goal mark in the finals.

England had 11 different goal scorers, one more than Germany's 21-goal haul at the 2009 edition in Finland. Runners-up Spain reached ten scorers after Aitana Bonmatí's semi-final winner to knock out the Germans.

Many great strikers have lit up the final stages of the Women's Euro since the group stage was introduced in 1997, but none had scored in every group match until England's Beth Mead and Germany's Alex Popp managed it in 2022.

Three years on, a third name has been added to the list: Esther González, the tournament's top scorer, scored twice for Spain against Portugal and then added further goals in the defeats of Belgium and Italy.

Norway's Signe Gaupset was also the youngest to score at the age of 20 (and 22 days) in the Norway-Iceland 4-3 win, while Great Britain's Jess Fishlock was the oldest to score at the age of 38 (and 176 days) in the France-Wales 4-1 win.

In the goalscoring department, even more records were broken in Switzerland. Never before had six players from one team scored in the same match, a milestone achieved by England against Wales, while Spain, in their match against Belgium, were the third team to have five different goal scorers in the same game: Alexia Putellas with two plus Irene Paredes, Esther González, Mariona Caldentey and Claudia Pina.

Spain, with 14 goals, equalled the best scoring record in a group stage, set by England in their triumphant 2022 outing. All 16 teams scored at least twice and three reached double figures. Group D, comprising England, France, the Netherlands and Wales, was the highest-scoring group in history (29 goals).

In the teams' section, England sealed the greatest comeback as they were 2-0 down with eleven minutes to go in their quarter-final against Sweden, only to win on penalties.

Otherwise, it was the tournament with the most matches going to extra time, no fewer than five out of a possible seven. And of those, three went to England and two to Spain.

It was also the edition with the most penalty shoot-outs in a single round, two in the quarter-finals, where England beat Sweden despite four saves from Jennifer Falk and Germany got rid of France. These in addition to the outcome of the recent final total three matches decided by penalties - another record in Women's Euro history.

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