WHEN Switzerland's Nadine Riesen put her side 1-0 up against Norway in their Women's Euro 2025 opener at St. Jakobs-Park on Wednesday the whole nation erupted and even though the Swiss let their lead slip and lost 2-1, they still left the stadium with their heads held high.
“It felt amazing. I couldn’t imagine that I would score a goal, and even happier that we could celebrate all together. The atmosphere was so nice, and the whole stadium and, yeah, it’s something I will never forget,“ the 25-year-old Riesen told Reuters, beaming with pride despite the defeat.
“The first half, I think we played pretty well, we showed what we can do. We wanted to give the whole of Switzerland something back... and it’s so sad that we didn’t make it through the second half.”
Norway captain Ada Hegerberg scored just after the break and Switzerland then conceded an own goal. Despite plenty of chances and a penalty award that was overturned after a VAR review, the hosts could not fashion another goal.
Wednesday's game was Switzerland's third single-goal defeat to Norway in 2025 but Riesen said her side were proud of what they had done.
“It’s a positive feeling, leaving from here -- of course, we’re disappointed that we couldn’t win, we wanted the three points for sure, so we will keep looking for that, and we will take the first half into Sunday,“ she said.
“And hopefully also the atmosphere, because we felt like we were 12 players on the pitch, not only 11, because everyone was supporting, everyone’s rooting, and we really felt that.”
