Stars of the 2025 Euro stole the EA FC 26 spotlight this week, as the video game giant's fan-voted 2026 Team of the Year recognized some of international soccer's top achievers on Thursday.
Champions England fielded four honorees as forward Alessia Russo joined a trio of Lioness defenders — Leah Williamson, Millie Bright, and Team of the Year captain Lucy Bronze — on the 11-player list.
"Being named the first-ever Women's EA Sports FC TOTY Captain is an honour," Bronze said in a statement. "2025 was an amazing year — winning the Euros again and picking up my first BWSL with Chelsea — so much of that success is thanks to our fans, and it's great to see them recognize my efforts with this award."
The rest of the EA FC 26 Team of the Year also favored European titans, as Euro runners-up and Nations League winners Spain also saw a quartet of players make the roster. La Roja fully owned the Team of Year midfield as stars Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey, and Alexia Putellas joined forward Clàudia Pina on Thursday's lineup.
Rounding out the squad were three other European club standouts as EA FC 26 also tapped Chliean goalkeeper Christiane Endler (OL Lyonnes), French defender Selma Bacha (OL Lyonnes), and Polish forward Ewa Pajor (FC Barcelona).
Champions League newcomer Manchester United is on a roll, becoming the only 2025/26 league phase club to post two straight clean sheets while tallying six points through the first two UWCL matches.
USWNT goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce played Manchester United hero in the 1-0 Champions League shutout against Atlético Madrid on Thursday, notching five saves as both teams became shorthanded due to offsetting red cards.
"Phallon and her experiences in England have really taken her game up a notch," US national team boss Emma Hayes told reporters after dropping this month's USWNT roster earlier this week. "I really noticed she's playing like a player that has gone through the various levels."
Elsewhere on Thursday, reigning Champions League winners Arsenal shook off their 2025/26 opening loss to OL Lyonnes by claiming a 2-0 win over Portuguese side Benfica, with goals from Alessia Russo and Beth Mead sealing the deal for the Gunners.
Only five teams finished the European competition's opening pair of league-phase matches with all six points, with three-time title-winning titan Barcelona topping the UWCL table with a +10 goal differential.
Champions League play will continue next month, with the 18 contenders returning to the 2025/26 UWCL pitch for their third league-phase clashes on November 11th and 12th.
OL Lyonnes scored some UEFA Champions League revenge on Tuesday, upending reigning UWCL champs Arsenal 2-1 in the powerhouse pair's 2025/26 league phase opener in London.
In a rematch of last season's Champions League semifinal, Haiti international Melchie Dumornay sealed the OL Lyonnes result with a first-half brace for the French titans, quickly countering Arsenal forward Alessia Russo's seventh-minute strike.
"Errors happen from time to time, but if they happen too often, of course, there's something there," noted Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers, referencing the defensive mistakes that led to both OL Lyonnes goals. "Sometimes it's intangible or hard to put your finger on because it's a mixture of things."
"We won't get too high [or] too low in this situation," the Gunners manager continued, adding "the team went through hard times last year as well, and then we ended the season on a high with an amazing achievement in the Champions League."
OL Lyonnes weren't the only opening-day league phase victors, as Juventus took down Benfica 2-1 while 2024/25 runners-up Barcelona demolished Bundesliga side Bayern Munich 7-1 behind a pair of braces from attackers Ewa Pajor and Clàudia Pina.
Unlike previous iterations, the 2025/26 Champions League format does not include first-round rematches, with each team facing six different opponents before advancing to the knockouts.
How to watch 2025/26 Champions League games
UWCL league phase opening matches conclude with five games on Wednesday, with WSL winners Chelsea FC kicking off the action against Dutch side FC Twente at 12:45 PM ET.
All 2025/26 Champions League matches will air live on Paramount+.
World No. 5 England are bringing football home once again, lifting their second straight UEFA Women's Euro trophy after defeating reigning World Cup champs No. 2 Spain in the 2025 championship match on Sunday.
Leading for a total of four minutes throughout the entirety of the knockouts, Sunday's win marked England's third consecutive comeback victory this tournament, as the Lionesses bested La Roja in a penalty shootout to become the first back-to-back European champions since 2013.
Armed with more confident knockout-stage results, Spain came out swinging in the first half, going up 1-0 behind Mariona Caldentey's 25th-minute strike.
However, England would not be denied, equalizing off a header from Alessia Russo in the 57th minute to eventually force extra time at a 1-1 deadlock.
The stalemate held through the additional 30 minutes, invoking yet another penalty shootout in true 2025 Euro fashion.
Spain struck first, but three uncharacteristic missed shots from Caldentey, reigning Ballon d'Or winner Aitana Bonmatí, and 2023 World Cup breakout star Salma Paralluelo handed England control of the shootout.
Forward Chloe Kelly — the 2022 title-winning scorer — came through for the Lionesses again, sinking the final shot from the spot to secure England's second major tournament title.
Sunday's victory also added to Sarina Wiegman's personal perfect Euro record, as the England manager emerged from her third European Championship with a third straight title — two with the Lionesses and one with the Netherlands in 2017.
"She's amazing," Kelly said of Wiegman. "She is an incredible woman. What she's done for this country, we should all be so grateful."
Despite Spain's edge, England showcased the mentality it takes to cap an unlikely run with a fairytale ending — one that could fuel them down the path to another trophy as attention shifts toward the 2027 World Cup.
Chelsea FC is the first team in Women's Super League (WSL) history to claim an unbeaten 22-game season, adding the undefeated moniker to their sixth-straight league title with Saturday's 1-0 win over Liverpool.
The Blues' perfect season joins the previous unbeaten campaigns of 2012's Arsenal, 2016's Manchester City, and Chelsea's own 2018 squad — though those three teams did so in 14, 16, and 18 games, respectively.
Chelsea finishes the 2024/25 campaign with an astounding 19 wins and three draws, missing just six possible points on the table en route to their new WSL record of 60 points in a single season.
"As a manager, players, and staff, you only live these moments maybe once in your life," said Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor following Saturday's history-making win. "You need to enjoy it because it is a great achievement."
Trailing Chelsea's impressive winning tally by a full 12 points, Arsenal secured second place with a 4-3 victory over third-place Manchester United in their Saturday season finale.
WSL standouts secure individual 2024/25 awards
Though they missed the WSL's team trophy, the Gunners did claim some individual hardware this weekend, as voters selected midfielder Mariona Caldentey as the inaugural winner of the WSL Player of the Season award.
The 29-year-old Spain international led the league in shot creation, and put up nine goals and five assists on the WSL stat sheet this season.
Caldentey's teammate Alessia Russo also walked away with a trophy, sharing the Golden Boot with fourth-place Manchester City's Khadija "Bunny" Shaw after both forwards scored 12 goals each on the season.
Also sharing a stat-sheet title is Chelsea's Hannah Hampton and Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who claimed the 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove award behind 13 clean sheets apiece.
Meanwhile, the season's WSL Rising Star award went to ninth-place West Ham striker Shekiera Martinez. After spending the first half of the 2024/25 season on loan to Bundesliga side SC Freiburg, the 23-year-old German international notched an astounding 10 goals in her 12 total WSL matches.
Speaking of impressive scoring, Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema's stellar chip against Aston Villa in January earned the Dutch star the 2024/25 WSL Goal of the Season title.
The first matchday of the 2025 UEFA Nations League tournament saw a few regional heavy-hitters shaking off the dust on Friday, with reigning Euros champs England settling for a 1-1 draw against Portugal while perennial contenders Germany similarly split points with the Netherlands after a 2-2 result.
Snagging an early lead for the Lionesses was forward Alessia Russo, who slotted in a ball from right-back Lucy Bronze in the match's 15th minute.
Unfortunately for England, however, Portugal extended their undefeated streak to 11 games after attacking midfielder Kika Nazareth scored a top-corner equalizer at the 75th minute mark to clinch the draw.
Germany and the Netherlands, who claimed third- and fourth-place, respectively, in the tournament's inaugural 2023/24 edition, opened their 2025 campaigns with a back-and-forth battle on Friday.
After Dutch star Lineth Beerensteyn opened scoring by nutmegging German net-minder and 2024 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year Ann-Katrin Berger in the 13th minute, Germany closed out the first half with an extra-time header from Lea Schüller to level the score.
The second half saw the Germans pull ahead thanks to a 50th-minute strike from Sjoeke Nüsken, before Beerensteyn again broke through with the match's final goal in the 66th minute.
After the match, new head coach Christian Wück, who took over the German team last March, told reporters, "We need to learn to maintain our focus, especially after taking the lead. It’s frustrating to draw after putting in such strong efforts."
Reigning champion Spain rallies for late comeback victory
Draws aside, defending Nations League winners Spain earned perhaps the wildest victory of the opening matchday, surging back from a 2-0 deficit against Belgium to claim all three points in a 3-2 finish.
The 2023 World Cup champions fell behind early after striker Mariam Toloba gave Belgium the edge in the game's 18th minute. Forward Tessa Wullaert doubled that lead in the 72nd minute, seemingly putting an emphatic end to Spain's hopes of a victory.
Clàudia Pina clawed one back for La Roja just five minutes later, but it took a pair of stoppage-time goals from Lucía García and late call-up Cristina Martín-Prieto to secure the literal last-second win.
Nations League to set up UEFA's 2027 World Cup qualifying
Established in 2022, the Women’s Nations League is now the continent’s qualifying tournament for the Euros, World Cup, and Olympics.
With records wiped following last year’s rollercoaster Olympic qualifiers, early Nations League matches now serve as a key window into the fast-approaching 2025 Euros — in addition to a heated competition in their own right.
On top of that, the outcome of this second-ever edition of the contest will determine teams' positioning for the 2026 European qualifiers for World Cup. Put simply, the finishing spots teams snag after 2025 Nations League play will determine their league paths to claiming one of UEFA's 11 available spots in the 2027 World Cup.
While there's a lot on the line, there's also a significant amount of action still to come. With four teams in each League A group, squads will play three round-robin home-and-away fixtures to determine their final group-play standings — meaning each of Friday's games have a rematch on the calendar before the stage ends on June 3rd.
The winners of the four League A groups will ultimately meet in the two-leg Nations League semifinals in October, with the two-leg third-place play-off and a final set for November and December.