“That is as soon as in a lifetime, it is going to by no means come again.”
Switzerland head coach Pia Sundhage had been unequivocal in her pre-match information convention as she urged her gamers to “embrace the stress” of their opening recreation as Euro 2025 hosts.
But when it got here to it, the Swiss didn’t get the win they so badly craved in Basel as their first main girls’s match on house soil started with a 2-1 defeat by Norway.
The extremely skilled Sundhage is aware of all about main a number nation on a giant stage, having taken cost of Sweden on house soil at Euro 2013, one thing she described as “certainly one of my greatest years”.
This time her Switzerland crew threw away a 1-0 lead and fell to defeat in merciless style, with defender Julia Stierli’s unlucky personal purpose settling the match.
Ada Hegerberg had cancelled out Nadine Riesen’s opener barely 4 minutes earlier than Stierli steered a low cross into her personal internet.
It made the Swiss the primary Ladies’s Euros hosts to lose their opening match, however hope nonetheless stays that they may attain the knockout stage.
This match was not kickstarted with pre-match pyrotechnics or something flashy. As a substitute the opening ceremony in Basel was playful and entertaining as performers danced with silver tubes earlier than an enormous Ladies’s Euros trophy was shaped within the centre circle, surrounded by flags of all of the 16 nations competing in Switzerland.
Sundhage’s gamers appeared to take the burden of expectation of their stride early on, taking part in on the entrance foot. They dominated two-time European champions Norway within the first half at a sold-out St Jakob-Park, however they may not see the job via.
Assessing whether or not her gamers embraced the stress, Sundhage stated: “Oh yeah. I’ve by no means seen that form of locker room beforehand and on the resort earlier than we left.
“Step-by-step, the perfect half is it is completely different gamers that use their voice. We have been ready. I talked to them after the sport and it is so necessary to make use of your language and your physique language and phrases as nicely after defeat as a result of we nonetheless have an opportunity to play the quarter-final.”
That’s the message now – Sundhage desires her aspect to take advantage of their remaining Group A video games in opposition to Iceland and Finland.
“We begin with Iceland and if we play recreation then we put ourselves in a great place,” she stated.
“Be chargeable for what you say, what you do and the way you behave, as a result of that’s the neatest thing for the Swiss nationwide crew and the Swiss individuals.”
