Northern Ireland will lock horns with tournament hosts England, as well as Austria and Norway, following the draw for the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 finals.
Drawn in Group A, Kenny Shiels' side will be very familiar with all three opponents having faced both England and Austria just this week, and qualifying for the finals from the same group as Norway.
All three games will be played at Southampton's St. Mary's Stadium. Northern Ireland will kick off their campaign against Norway on July 7th, then face Austria on July 11th before concluding the group phase on July 15th against England.
We're in Group A with...👇🏻 @UEFAWomensEURO #GAWA #WEURO2022 pic.twitter.com/83nPbh6ipu
— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) October 28, 2021
Northern Ireland, of course, faced England as recently as Saturday at Wembley, holding out for over an hour with a determined performance before conceding four quick fire goals following some inspired substitutions.
They followed that up on Tuesday by almost defeating Austria at Seaview only to suffer the heartbreak of a stoppage time equaliser.
And they last played Norway, ranked 12th in the world, during the qualifying campaign for the Euro's, albeit losing both games in Stavanger and Belfast.
Automatically qualifying as hosts, England reached the semi-finals last time out in 2017 but are now managed by Sarina Wiegman who guided the Netherlands to victory four years ago.
Austria also reached the semi-finals in 2017 in what was their first appearance at a major tournament, only losing on penalties to Denmark in the last four.
Norway are two-time winners and have only twice failed to reach the last four of the tournament since 1987. They qualified with a perfect record from Group C, thanks in no small part to ten goals from Barcelona striker Caroline Graham Hansen.
