Suzanne Wrack was at St Jakob-Park tonight, and her report has landed. Here it is! Thanks for reading this MBM.
Norway are delighted. They kind of got away with one there. The sheer presence of Ada Hegerberg dug them out of a hole, and never mind the penalty miss that kept the game live until the very last kick. She barged through a porous Swiss defence to equalise, then spooked Julia Stierli into conceding an own goal. Switzerland will wonder how they came away with nothing – the excellent Géraldine Reuteler hit the crossbar, had a fine shot saved, and missed a sitter – but when it’s not your day, it’s not your day. Once the sting of defeat subsides, though, they should take succour from a very creditable opening performance. They’ll hope for better luck against Iceland on Sunday; Norway will hope to perform a little better against Finland. Here’s how Group A looks after the first day …
1. Norway P1 W1 D0 L0 F2 A1 Pts 3
2. Finland P1 W1 D0 L0 F1 A0 Pts 3
3. Switzerland P1 W0 D0 L1 F1 A2 Pts 0
4. Iceland P1 W0 D0 L1 F0 A1 Pts 0
FULL TIME: Switzerland 1-2 Norway
The Swiss deserved something, all three points maybe, but Norway dug deep and scrapped hard, and so they’re getting nothing. Football’s like that sometimes.
Updated
90 min +7: Jensen cuts in from the right and, on the edge of the D, swivels smartly and attempts to pass into the bottom right, with Peng wrong-footed and rooted. The ball bobbles inches wide of the post. That would have been a gorgeous, Robbie Fowleresque finish.
90 min +6: Vallotto is booked for cynically dragging back an in-flight Ildhusøy, who doesn’t rush to get back up.
90 min +5: The Swiss are pushing Norway back, but Pilgrim strides in from the left and balloons an overly ambitious shot miles wide and high.
90 min +4: Schertenleib tries to one-two her way down the right with Crnogorčević, but the passes don’t quite come off.
90 min +2: There are going to be seven additional minutes. This one’s spent by Graham Hansen slowly making way for Jensen.
90 min +1: Maritz competes at the near post, but is crowded out by Engen. Goal kick.
90 min: Pilgrim hits a fizzing cross-cum-shot into the six-yard box from the left. Fiskerstrand parries, but the ball drops to Beney, on the right-hand corner of that box. Beney shoots. Hansen blocks. The ball ricochets back to Pilgrim, who can only force a corner. From which …
88 min: Ildhusøy is sent clear down the middle by Engen, but her chip over Peng floats wide left. Both teams have missed some good chances tonight.
87 min: Crnogorčević comes on for the unfortunate Stierli. Meanwhile here’s an answer for Joe Pearson (81 min): “I’m delighted by the score sheet because I’m a huge fan of Riesen. OK, so I’m talking about the chewy chocolate-and-caramel candy, not the Switzerland defender.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the … erm … cheese?
85 min: Bjelde stays down before the corner can be taken. The set piece comes to nothing, then the same player takes an age over a throw, and is booked for time-wasting.
83 min: Schertenleib shimmies in from the left before swivelling and rolling a defence-splitter down the middle for Reuteler, who is one on one with the keeper! She leans back and smacks her attempted lob straight into the keeper. A corner, but a huge miss. Bjelde was playing her well on!
Updated
81 min: Switzerland have picked up the pace again, but the passes aren’t sticking in the final third as they did in the first half. “Perhaps the great ‘pun’dit Peter Oh would suggest that the Swiss defense has some holes in it?” Joe Pearson quipping away there, parking his tanks on our old friend Mr Oh’s lawn.
79 min: Beney swerves down the right and tries to get past Bratberg Lund, only for the pair to collide. Beney goes over, and demands a free kick near the corner flag, but doesn’t get one. The home fans are fuming.
77 min: The game restarts, but doesn’t quite restart. You get the gist.
75 min: Before the game restarts, Norway make another double change. Ildhusøy and Terland are in, Maanum and Hegerberg are out. It’s been a mixed 20 minutes for Hegerberg all right.
73 min: Time for a cooling break, then. Wow, does everyone need one! Norway celebrated the reversal of that award as they would a goal, and now Switzerland look a little bit downcast again.
VAR overturns penalty!
72 min: Turns out there was a marginal offside during the build-up, Pilgrim having made too much progress when chasing a flick-on, and so the actual penalty award is by the by. What drama here! The Swiss coach Pia Sundhage is furious.
Updated
71 min: There wasn’t much contact there, though. VAR is going to have a double-check.
Updated
Penalty to Switzerland!
70 min: Riesen barges her way down the left and into the Norway box, before turning elegantly on a sixpence. She collides with Harviken as she turns tail, and goes down. The referee points immediately to the spot!
Hegerberg misses!
69 min: Hegerberg rolls the penalty nonchalantly wide left of the target! Then the Swiss counter, and …
Updated
Penalty to Norway!
68 min: Beney concedes a needless corner with a woefully off-radar backpass. It’s sent in from the left, and then handled by … of course, given what’s just happened up the other end … Reuteler, who is all over the place, spinning around with her arm in the air. A no-brainer of a decision.
66 min: Reuteler curls a long-distance shot towards the bottom-left corner. Fiskerstrand tips it away at full stretch. So close to an equaliser, but then up the other end …
65 min: Norway respond with a double change of their own … and there’s a right old brouhaha over it. Neither Mjelde nor Boe Risa fancy leaving the stage. They’re told in no uncertain terms by the referee to get off it, and eventually depart in high dudgeon. Harviken and Naalsund come on in their place.
64 min: Switzerland make a double change, replacing Ivelj and Xhemaili with Pilgrim and the prodigy Schertenleib.
63 min: … but Norway nearly put the game to bed. Reiten slips Hegerberg clear down the inside-right channel. Gorgeous pass. Hegerberg is one on one with Peng, but loses the battle, Norway’s keeper smothering at her feet. Crucial save.
62 min: The Swiss try to clear their heads with some sterile domination. Passing it around the back carefully.
60 min: That’s a short-order double-whammy for Switzerland, who were by far the better team until an equaliser that came out of nowhere. But Hegerberg has made her presence felt, and now look. Can the Swiss respond?
GOAL! Switzerland 1-2 Norway (Stierli 58 og)
They might feel deflated now. Graham Hansen gets past Beney down the left. She slide-hooks into the middle. Hegerberg prepares to slot, but Stierli lunges in ahead of her and deflects the ball past her own keeper and into the left-hand side of the net.
Updated
56 min: Switzerland aren’t deflated, though. Beney crosses from the right. There’s nobody in the middle to connect. The ball’s sent back towards Beney, who can’t quite force home at the right-hand post, under severe pressure from Bratberg Lund.
55 min: This scoreline seriously flatters Norway. But Switzerland didn’t take their chances while the going was good. That’s seriously punctured the atmosphere at St Jakob-Park.
GOAL! Switzerland 1-1 Norway (Hegerberg 54)
Well, here’s more! And it’s out of nowhere. Norway win a corner down the left, Beney forced to turn Hegerberg’s deep cross out of play. It’s swung long, Peng comes off her line and flaps, and Hegerberg smashes home a header from close range. Easy as that!
Updated
52 min: Riesen nudges infield from the left and looks for the far corner. Too high, and wide to boot. But it’s another half-chance. “As a neutral I’m frustrated watching Norway,” sighs Rachel Brown-Finnis on BBC co-commentary. Like our friend Kári Tulinius, she expected more.
50 min: Maritz beckenbauers her way down the inside-left channel and has the opportunity to shoot from the edge of the box … but opts to look for Xhemaili in the middle instead, and gets the pass all wrong. Switzerland letting sleepy Norway off the hook a bit here.
Updated
49 min: Norway haven’t exactly come flying out of the traps at the start of this second half. A couple of sloppy passes. They’re fortunate that Beney (MBM hack’s curse) takes a heavy touch when she’s got an opportunity to break into the box down the right.
47 min: Graham Hansen is slipped into a bit of space down the left but is quickly closed down by the ever-willing Beney. Manchester City look to have signed a good one here.
Norway get the second half underway. Presumably having received the hairdryer treatment from their coach Gemma Grainger, who will surely have told it as she saw it. No changes. “I may be showing my age here, but I always expect Norway to be one of the best sides at an international tournament,” begins dear, sweet, innocent Kári Tulinius. “In theory Ada Hegerberg can win any match on her own, and if the Norwegian team continues to play like this, individual magic may be Norway’s only hope.”
Half-time advertising break. Sign up to Football Daily …
… and subscribe to Women’s Football Weekly!
Updated
HALF TIME: Switzerland 1-0 Norway
The hosts are halfway to only their second victory over Norway, and their second win at a Euro finals. They walk off with a smile and a spring in the step. Norway look flummoxed.
45 min +1: The first of two additional first-half minutes goes by without incident.
45 min: A long ball that rolls slowly to Peng. She picks it up. Maanum gives her a little nudge. Slightly unnecessary, but the Swiss will love to see Norway showing their frustration at being thoroughly second best so far.
43 min: Switzerland have enjoyed 57 percent of possession so far. Riesen and Reuteler have been immense.
41 min: Riesen crosses from the left. Xhemaili sends a header harmlessly wide right of goal. She was quite a way out there, and might have done better attempting to bring it down or flick someone else into play.
39 min: The corner comes in from the left. Fiskerstrand flaps and gets lucky when the ball clanks off the nearest red shirt and out for a goal kick.
38 min: Reuteler tries to spin into space down the right and is skittled by Bratberg Lund. Norway are all over the shop. Ivelj sends the free kick towards the far stick. Calligaris prepares to meet the dropping ball but Mjelde turns out for a corner.
37 min: Riesen racing free down the left again. This is getting old. Her cross is overhit, but Beney keeps things going. The ball’s sent in from the right, and Xhemaili tries to dribble her way into a shooting position, but Norway’s defenders are on point this time, and crowd her out.
35 min: Beney is sent romping into acres of space down the right. She cuts back for Reuteler, who from the edge of the box leans back and hoicks poorly over the bar. That was a decent half-chance, Reuteler having left her marker Engen in the dust.
34 min: Graham Hansen has looked the most lively Norway player to this point, not that the bar’s been set that high. She dribbles down the left touchline but is quickly swarmed and forced to turn tail.
32 min: That’s Riesen’s second international goal. According to our player profiles, she’s been putting in extra work in the gym recently; it’s certainly showing in her dynamic performance so far tonight. She’s been relentless down the left flank.
30 min: Switzerland totally deserve this lead. Norway try to peg them back immediately, Maanum’s dribble down the right drawing a foul from Maritz. A free kick that’s basically a corner. Boe Risa swings it in, and Peng claims again with safe hands to great cheers from the joyful home support.
GOAL! Switzerland 1-0 Norway (Riesen 28)
Riesen has been the best player on the pitch, and she gets her reward. She’s given far too much time down the left again. She sashays into the box and crosses low for Vallotto, who can neither control nor shoot. No matter! The ball ricochets back to Riesen, who takes a first-time shy towards the bottom left. The ball squeaks past Fiskerstrand’s outstretched arm, off the base of the post, and in!
Updated
26 min: Graham Hansen tries to break into space down the middle, only to be grabbed by the shirt from behind by Calligaris, who really should go into the book, but gets away with it. The referee in a laissez-faire mood so far.
24 min: Riesen probes down the left and cuts back for Reuteler, who takes a touch to the right, opens her body, and pings a sensational rising shot towards the top-right corner. Fiskerstrand is beaten all ends up, but the shot is a couple of inches too high, and caroms off the crossbar. So close to a wonderful opener!
Updated
23 min: Reiten sends in the corner but it’s easily claimed by Peng. The Swiss counter, Riesen crossing from the left. Xhemaili goes for the ball but only manages to catch Hansen. Free kick.
22 min: Reiten drives hard down the left and wins a corner off the back-tracking Beney. Five white shirts around the penalty spot, preparing to spray out in all directions when the corner comes in.
20 min: Maanum is fine to continue. And everyone else is suitably refreshed.
19 min: Maanum is down, requiring some treatment. Everyone else takes the opportunity to grab a bevvy. Cooling Break!
17 min: Now it’s Reuteler’s turn to have a dig from distance. She meets a loose ball with the outside of her foot, sending it dipping and screeching goalwards. Fiskerstrand has a tougher job on her hands to claim this time, but she does so well, gathering calmly on her line.
15 min: A Swiss corner is cut back for Wälti, who pearls a shot straight at Fiskerstrand. Crisply hit, but that’s the keeper’s all day.
13 min: Reiten plays a cute first-time defence-splitter down the middle to release Hegerberg, who surely must enter the box and shoot, but hesitates, allowing Maritz to extend a leg and poke away. Then the flag goes up for offside anyway … though that looked pretty tight. Had Hegerberg scored, VAR might have had some lines to draw with the old magic ruler there. A big chance spurned.
12 min: … but then so is Graham Hansen, who twists the blood of Calligaris down the left before whipping in a cross that Peng does well to claim in her six-yard box.
Updated
11 min: Switzerland push Norway back again. Riesen probes down the left. Play’s switched. Beney crosses from the right. Too long. Switzerland’s wingers are looking lively.
9 min: Reiten makes good down the left and looks for Maanum in the middle. Maanum is surprised at Riesen’s arrival from behind and hoicks over.
Updated
8 min: Norway finally show in attack, Graham Hansen gliding in gracefully from the left flank but not quite making herself enough space to shoot. She lays off to Boe Risa, who is quickly dispossessed. Switzerland break, and Riesen crosses from the left. Ivelj heads goalwards but there’s no power on the effort and Fiskerstrand claims without fuss.
6 min: Riesen is being afforded far too much space down the left. She’s nearly released again by a long crossfield ball, but Bjelde gets over in the nick of time to put a stop to the move.
4 min: Riesen is sent scampering into acres down the left. She crosses low for Reuteler. Mjelde intervenes just in time to concede a corner, from which nothing comes. But this is a very promising opening period for Switzerland. Norway haven’t turned up for work yet.
2 min: The corner’s only half cleared by Norway, and Maritz comes back at them down the right. Her low, hard cross nearly reaches Xhemaili, six yards out, but it’s hacked clear properly in the second instance. A fast start from the hosts.
1 min: Beney runs at Bratberg Lund down the right. She crosses. The ball pings up off Bratberg Lund’s foot and onto her hand, which isn’t that close to her body. Beney wants a penalty, and you’ve seen them given for far less, but the referee’s not interested. VAR won’t poke its neb in either. Just a corner.
The hosts Switzerland get the ball rolling. St Jakob-Park in Basel is a cauldron, both in terms of temperature and atmosphere. A beautiful noise.
Updated
The teams are out! Switzerland in red, Norway in white. Before kick-off, it’s time for the national anthems. One phrase in Norway’s song, Ja, vi elsker dette landet (Yes, We Love This Country), springs out. “Love, love it!” As far as we’re aware, and admittedly we’ve done no research, it’s the only allusion to a Premier League manager suffering a nuclear meltdown in any national hymn. As for the Swiss Psalm, it’s by all accounts not very popular in Switzerland, to the point where a TV competition was held in 2014 to rewrite it or come up with a better one. Apparently the results of that were met with a wave of apathy as well. To gently tweak a line from the great 20th-century philosopher Jerome Seinfeld, people do not like to say Swiss Psalm.
Updated
The Guardian’s team of experts have made their pre-tournament predictions. Fans of the two teams competing this evening shouldn’t get too excited: Suzanne Wrack goes as far as saying Norway have the capacity to “not be disappointing”, but that faint praise is as good as it gets. Elsewhere, Switzerland is only mentioned with regards to hosting and being a pleasant tourist destination. Hey, you’ve got to call it as you see it.
A major tournament simply isn’t a major tournament without a wallchart. Don’t worry if you haven’t been able to source one, because our resident artistic genius David Squires has been to work and has your back. You know the pack drill: Print it out! Pin it up! Fill it in! Make a series of primary-school-level errors while filling out at least one of the final tables!
The opening match of Euro 2025 also kicked off proceedings in Group A. Finland shocked ten-woman Iceland thanks to Katariina Kosola’s second-half strike; Barry Glendenning was all over that, in the modern, fashionable, minute-by-minute style. As a result of that game in Thun, this is how the table looks before tonight’s match in Basel.
1. Finland P1 W1 D0 L0 F1 A0 Pts 3
2. Norway P0 W0 D0 L0 F0 A0 Pts 0
3. Switzerland P0 W0 D0 L0 F0 A0 Pts 0
4. Iceland P1 W0 D0 L1 F0 A1 Pts 0
Switzerland captain Lia Wälti’s knee has been playing up of late, but she’s fine to start. Sydney Schertenleib, the 18-year-old from Barcelona who is strongly tipped to become one of the next generation’s superstars, is on the bench.
Norway’s front line is led by Ada Hegerberg, who will be looking to score her first goal in a major international tournament since the 2015 World Cup (having spent five years in self-imposed exile, and missed nearly all of the 2023 World Cup through injury). The first-ever winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or will be assisted by this year’s runner up Caroline Graham Hansen, and current WSL player of the year Guro Reiten.
The teams
Switzerland: Peng, Beney, Calligaris, Stierli, Maritz, Riesen, Ivelj, Walti, Vallotto, Reuteler, Xhemaili.
Subs: Herzog, Wandeler, Crnogorcevic, Terchoun, Sow, Balleste, Mauron, Folmli, Pilgrim, Schertenleib, Lehmann, Bohi.
Norway: Fiskerstrand, Bjelde, Mjelde, Tuva Hansen, Lund, Risa, Caroline Hansen, Engen, Maanum, Hegerberg, Reiten.
Subs: Panengstuen, Woldvik, Ostenstad, Saevik, Kielland, Harviken, Ildhusoy, Terland, Jensen, Naalsund, Gaupset, Mikalsen.
Referee: Alina Pesu (Romania).
Updated
Preamble
The hosts take on a sleeping giant in Basel. Switzerland don’t have much of a record at the Euros: they’ve only qualified twice before, in 2017 and 2022, failing to get out of the groups on both occasions. Norway on the other hand are past masters: champions in 1987 and 1993, and runners-up four other times. But the word past is instructive there: Norway, erstwhile World and Olympic champions as well, aren’t the force they once were, having failed to get through the groups at the last two Euros – remember that 8-0 defeat to England three years ago? – and falling to their current Fifa ranking of 16th in the world, the joint-lowest mark in their history. So while Switzerland, ranked 23rd, may be very much second best historically, there’s not so much of a gap between the countries right now.
Having said all that, Norway will still fancy their chances this afternoon. They’ve beaten Switzerland twice already this year, in the Nations League, while the Swiss are six without a win in competitive matches. The hosts, who are without the injury-stricken Ramona Bachmann, will look to Arsenal midfielder Lia Wälti for inspiration; Norway have plenty of star power up front in Caroline Graham Hansen and Ada Hegerberg. Can the hosts get off on the good foot, or will Norway rediscover their mojo? Kick-off is at 8pm UK time. It’s on!
