Wales Women played in front of five fans in 2021. Saturday at the Euros showed how far they have come
Lucerne was the perfect setting for Wales Women's first major tournament match: a city in the shadow of Mount Pilatus and dwarfed on all sides by imposing, confounding heights that, in Saturday's pre-match sunshine, inexplicably felt scalable.
Here are the hard facts. Wales were drawn into Euro 2025's most desperate group. Two of the teams — the Netherlands and England — lifted the trophy in 2017 and 2022 respectively. France were Euro 2022 semi-finalists. Of the competition's 16 sides, Wales are ranked lowest at 30th. They are the only team in Group D without a professional domestic league. Opta gave them a 0.2 per cent chance of winning this tournament.
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Yet, in the hours preceding Saturday's kick-off, memories of Euro 2016 — when Wales men's side, competing in their first major tournament since 1958, reached the semi-finals — danced on the tips of bucket hats, transforming Lucerne into a lucid red dream pool.
This nation knows the curdling gut drop of footballing heartbreak better than most. This women's team even more so.
There was a near 50-year ban on women's football with which to contend, the Football Association of Wales' removal of the team from their 2005 European qualification, and a decades-long fight for relevancy and resources whilst living next door to one of the world's best women's leagues.
Yet Wales also knows the dizzying glory of finally lifting above all that; of bravely, maybe even stupidly, indulging in hope.
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Of course, not this time. This time reality did not wear a Wales shirt. This time it came at them wearing that of the 2017 European champions and, specifically, Netherlands' record-goalscorer Vivianne Miedema. Wales' hitherto dogged defence could have done better, closed in tighter as the Manchester City forward sauntered forwards on the stroke of half-time to score her 100th international goal.
But this is Miedema. And Arsenal's Victoria Pelova in the 48th minute. And Barcelona's Esmee Brugts in the 57th. Welcome to the brutal reality of the big time.
They were three of many lessons Wales expect to learn here in Switzerland. Another? 'To run,' quipped Wales full-back Lily Woodham post-match. 'A lot.'
Others include countering with more incision and intelligence, staying sharp in crucial moments, managing an xG greater than 0.17.
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'But the atmosphere…' one Wales fan ruminated wistfully in the hours after full-time.
And perhaps it's naive to elect not to speak more about the football. But then one remembers the colours — the red bleeding into the orange, the maelstrom of 4,000 bucket hats and Wales flags in the pulsing July sky; the hot, unexpected tears from new and old fans as the teams walked out.
And one remembers how, in October 2021, five Wales fans stood on cold metal bleachers to watch Wales Women draw 1-1 with Slovenia in a 2023 World Cup qualifier in Lendava. Sherida Spitse, the Netherlands' record-caps holder, has played two more games (245) than Wales Women as a team since their official recognition by the FAW in 1993 (243).
The stat speaks to the youth of not only this team but the movement surrounding it.
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On Saturday, orange shirts flowed through Lucerne to the Swissporarena directed by a Dutched-out orange disco bus. Fans followed a familiar script, all regal vim and Snollebollekes.
The red in the city was more unstudied. Raw. Chants went regrettably unfinished, fans still sorting out their notes. That Wales fans followed behind the Dutch in their walk acted as an almost unconscious admission of study.
In December 2024, Wales manager Rhian Wilkinson claimed Wales were 'culturally behind' when it came to women's football after a record-breaking 16,845 attendance for their Euro 2025 playoff final first leg against the Republic of Ireland.
'It's just taking longer than I would like for people to recognise what's right in front of them,' the Olympic bronze medalist told BBC Wales.
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The Netherlands have a headstart, their women's football evolution catalysed by triumph at a home Euros in 2017, and an appearance in the World Cup final two years later. But this is also a women's football nation that didn't qualify for a major tournament until the 2009 European Championship, and a World Cup until 2015.
And there are also instincts you cannot synthesise. As Wales fans began their stadium pilgrimage, awestruck by the moment, one clocked their surroundings: the Wales team hotel and team bus, right in front of them.
And so Wales fans did what they do and began singing the national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. The song's beauty is in its echoes, beckoning locals onto balconies, players and staff out of their bus, an old Swiss man onto his terrace with Wales flags printed on strips of A4 paper.
Ahead of kick-off, its visceral tendrils spread through the 14,000-plus in attendance. On 83 minutes, as Wales wilted 3-0, it came again. Soft yet building, despite the natural order of things.
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At full-time, Wales fans remained rooted in place, clapping the players. It is not everything but it is not nothing.
It is a step for Wales on their journey to becoming a women's football nation.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Wales, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros
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