Euro 2025: Switzerland riding wild emotions on and off the field into quarterfinals debut

GENEVA (AP) — Let’s go crazy, Switzerland.

The national women’s soccer team is riding a wave of passionate support in a country where emotions are typically kept under control.

Crucial goals like Switzerland got in the 90th and 92nd minutes of the past two games in sold-out stadiums helped unleash those strong feelings.

“We feel the whole of Switzerland behind us. It’s unbelievable,” defender Viola Calligaris said late Thursday after a frantic finish to the 1-1 draw with Finland.

The stoppage-time leveler by substitute Riola Xhemaili advanced the Swiss at the expense of the Finns — and earned the hosts a full week of anticipation before its first ever knockout game at a Women’s Euros. The wait was a mighty long time — 41 years — and will end next Friday in Bern, likely against world champion Spain.

“You have to get crazy”

It is what veteran coach Pia Sundhage asked of her players before the tournament, when there was much less public faith in their potential: “You have to get crazy.”

Sundhage saw in her first year in the job that good Swiss players were precise and correct but lacked the risk-taking to reach for greatness.

“Sometimes that is not good enough,” Sundhage, who coached ultra-confident United States players to win two Olympic titles, said in May. “And that is scary for a Swiss player.”

They look fearless now.

Fans and team in harmony

The noisy crowds in Geneva on Thursday and Bern last Sunday — when Iceland was swept aside 2-0 by a late tide of attacks — have responded to their high-energy team.

“It is so much more fun to coach and play when you have a loud crowd,” Sundhage said in the glow of staying in the tournament. “The reason we are in the quarterfinal is because we are on home soil.”

The 65-year-old Swedish coach perhaps underplayed her own tone-setting role in the late drama.

Switzerland needed only a draw with Finland to advance alongside Group A winner Norway on goal difference ahead of its opponent.

Yet at halftime of a goalless game, Sundhage rejected caution and went for the win.

Top teenage prospects

She sent on 19-year-old Leila Wandeler and pushed forward 18-year-old Iman Beney to form an all-teenage attack with Sydney Schertenleib — top talents signed by Lyonnes, Manchester City and Barcelona, respectively. She brought on Switzerland’s record goalscorer Ana-Maria Crnogorčević to play at right-back.

Swiss play became faster, more fluid, chances were created and Finland scored only from a 79th-minute penalty that was recklessly conceded.

Sundhage then put more attackers on the field, including Xhemaili who was in the Finland goalmouth in stoppage time to score by diverting in Géraldine Reuteler’s shot.

“I just saw in everyone’s eyes that we would still score this goal,” Reuteler said about the strike that kept Switzerland in Euro 2025.

Was this the “get crazy” moment Sundhage sought, she was asked.

“A little bit of a start, maybe,” she said. “I try to lead by example. That’s why Wandeler, she plays. Iman plays. Sydney Schertenleib plays. It’s okay to make a mistake. They go in and they just play.”

Finland’s goalscorer Natalia Kuikka, the experienced Chicago Stars defender, also saw it.

“They clearly came to the game that they wanted to win and it kind of showed,” Kuikka said of the Swiss.

Joyous Swiss

A tournament veteran like Sundhage saw the positive signs in camp of what she called “this phenomenal team coming together.”

“Since we went into the (tournament) bubble I think they’ve been louder,” she said. “They are dancing and they are creating this energy which I think helps us when we go on the pitch.”

“It is so important to embrace that joy, that is all that matters. And we are not finished yet.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer