Women’s Euro 2022: Putellas, Hegerberg and the stars ready to take centre stage

Barcelona
Femeni
packed
out
Camp
Nou
twice
for
Champions
League
games
in
the
season
just
ended,
in
what
was
the
most
eye-catching
sign
of
years
of
steady
growth.

Many
players
who
a
decade
ago
would
have
needed
part-time
work
to
supplement
their
playing
wages
are
now
enjoying
the
trappings
of
being
full-time
professionals.

It
means
these
players
are
physically
sharper,
more
tactically
astute,
and
skill
levels
are
soaring
skywards,
making
Euro
2022
an
unmissable
prospect.

Women’s
Euro
2022:
Fixtures,
Results,
Points
Table,
Kick
Off
Time
in
IST,
Telecast
&
Live
Streaming
Info

Here,
Stats
Perform
looks
at
seven
players
who
could
emerge
as
dominant
stars
of
the
tournament.

Alexia
Putellas,
Spain
and
Barcelona

Generally
considered
to
be
the
world’s
best
player,
Putellas
became
the
first
Spain
women’s
international
to
reach
100
caps
on
Friday
when
she
played
and
scored
in
a
1-1
friendly
draw
against
Italy.

She
runs
the
show
for
Barcelona,
captaining
the
team,
and
delivered
a
flood
of
goals
from
midfield.
She
hit
34
goals
across
all
competitions
last
season,
including
a
four-minute
hat-trick
against
Valencia,
and
in
the
Champions
League
she
was
named
player
of
the
season,
despite
her
team’s
3-1
defeat
to
Lyon
in
the
final.

❤️1⃣0⃣0⃣❤️

????????

@alexiaputellas:
The
first
player
to
reach
100
caps
for

@SEFutbolFem
????????????#WEURO2022
pic.twitter.com/dSyDjJgr2Y

—
UEFA
Women’s
EURO
2022
(@WEURO2022)

July
1,
2022

Irene
Paredes,
Spain
and
Barcelona

If
Putellas
pulls
the
strings
in
the
opposition
half,
it
will
likely
fall
to
Paredes
to
organise
at
the
other
end
of
the
field,
as
favourites
Spain
look
to
keep
it
tight
at
the
back.
The
Barcelona
centre-back
is
set
to
captain
Spain,
who
are
seeking
their
first
European
Championship
title.

After
joining
last
year
from
Paris
Saint-Germain,
Paredes
helped
Barcelona
to
a
polished
Primera
Division
campaign
of
30
wins
from
30
games,
with
only
11
goals
conceded.
Almost
11
years
since
making
her
debut
in
Euro
2013
qualifying,
Spain
will
look
for
Paredes
to
lead
by
example.

Pernille
Harder,
Denmark
and
Chelsea

Harder
is
a
serial
winner
at
club
level,
having
won
four
consecutive
league
and
cup
doubles
with
Wolfsburg
before
joining
Chelsea
for
a
reported
world-record
fee
in
September
2020
and
adding
back-to-back
WSL
and
FA
Cup
doubles.

The
classy
forward
will
create
chances
for
others
but
is
also
a
deadly
finisher,
scoring
68
goals
in
134
internationals.
Runners-up
last
time,
Denmark
will
look
to
Harder
to
ensure
they
are
in
the
mix
again
this
month.

Women’s
Euro:
History,
contenders
and
storylines
to
follow
as
Spain
lead
challengers
to
hosts
England

Ada
Hegerberg,
Norway
and
Lyon

Hegerberg
is
the
returning
Norway
heroine,
coming
back
into
the
fold
in
March
after
almost
five
years
in
self-imposed
exile,
having
previously
been
upset
by
the
national
federation’s
treatment
of
the
women’s
game.

A
true
superstar
of
the
game,
the
Lyon
striker
and
former
Ballon
d’Or
Feminin
winner
suffered
an
ACL
injury
in
early
2020
that
kept
her
sidelined
for
20
months,
but
she
is
emphatically
back
now,
as
she
proved
when
scoring
in
the
Champions
League
final
win
over
Barcelona
–
a
59th
European
club
competition
goal
in
her
60th
such
game.

@nff_landslag
pic.twitter.com/Iwzrfemneb

—
Ada
S
Hegerberg
(@AdaStolsmo)

June
23,
2022

Beth
Mead,
England
and
Arsenal

Once
a
teenage
revelation
at
Sunderland,
now
at
Arsenal,
Mead
had
to
wait
until
just
before
her
23rd
birthday
before
earning
a
first
England
cap.
In
the
four
years
since
that
debut,
she
has
floated
in
and
out
of
the
team,
with
the
Lionesses
having
serious
riches
with
their
attacking
options.

This
could
be
the
Whitby-born
player’s
tournament,
with
Sarina
Wiegman
expected
to
include
her
in
an
attacking
three
behind
a
main
striker.
Mead
has
hit
three
hat-tricks
for
England
in
the
last
nine
months
and
is
also
a
highly
creative
player
from
the
flanks.
She
is
one
of
a
handful
of
England
attackers
who
could
light
up
the
tournament.

Vivianne
Miedema,
Netherlands
and
Arsenal

Mead’s
club-mate
has
enjoyed
a
stunning
five-year
spell
in
the
English
top
flight,
hitting
a
record
74
Women’s
Super
League
goals
in
89
games.
In
May,
the
former
Bayern
Munich
player
agreed
a
new
deal
with
the
Gunners,
and
now
she
will
spearhead
the
Netherlands’ European
title
defence.

Described
by
team-mate
Jill
Roord
as
“an
absolute
killer”,
Miedema
helped
the
Netherlands
reach
the
2019
World
Cup
final
and
scored
a
record
10
goals
at
the
Tokyo
Olympics,
despite
the
Dutch
campaign
ending
with
a
quarter-final
penalty
shoot-out
loss
to
the
United
States.
Miedema
surprisingly
missed
from
the
spot,
so
she
is
not
perfect,
but
defences
will
fear
her
presence
over
the
coming
weeks.

10%
–

@oranjevrouwen
have
a
71%
chance
to
advance
to
the
quarter-finals
of

#WEURO2022
according
to
Stats
Perform’s
prediction
model,
but
four
countries
have
a
higher
chance
of
winning
the
tournament
than
the
Netherlands
(10%).
Outsiders?

https://t.co/kg0ohqZZNj
pic.twitter.com/LTxp312jz1

—
OptaJohan
(@OptaJohan)

June
28,
2022

Marie-Antoinette
Katoto,
France
and
Paris
Saint-Germain

The
PSG
and
France
men’s
teams
have
Kylian
Mbappe,
and
the
women
have
Marie-Antoinette
Katoto,
a
record-breaking
superstar
in
her
own
right.
Both
are
23
years
old,
both
have
over
100
goals
for
PSG,
and
both
could
lead
their
country
to
trophy
glory
this
year.

Katoto
became
PSG’s
record
scorer
in
the
women’s
game
last
season,
and
last
week
agreed
a
new
contract
tying
her
to
the
capital
club
until
2025.
There
lies
another
Mbappe
parallel,
with
PSG
determined
to
keep
the
striker
out
of
the
clutches
of
rival
clubs,
knowing
she
is
the
sort
of
talent
that
could
make
an
explosive
impact
on
Euro
2022.