Spain beat Switzerland 2-0 on Friday night to secure their place in the semi final of UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 in which they will face either France or Germany.
Ahead of the match most will have expected Spain to excel once again and beat the hosts. However, social media was full of hope of an upset by the hosts, with many a ‘Hop Schwiiz’ proclaimed. Yours truly wore a Lia Wälti Switzerland jersey while writing this report. There is nothing like a home team reaching far into the tournament, as we have seen in the Netherlands in 2017 and in England in 2022. But there is no denying Spain’s quality of football and strength.
The hosts made two changes to their starting eleven since their last game in the group stages against Finland. Noemi Ivelj started in place of Julia Stierli, while Ana-Maria Crnogorčević replaced Svenja Fölmli.
Spain on the other hand made six changes to the side that beat Italy, also played at Bern’s Wankdorf stadium. Cata Coll returned in goal for the Spanish, and Laia Aleixandri replaced Maria Méndez at centre back. It was not the only change to the back line as Ona Battle started ahead of Jana Fernandez and at left back Olga Carmona comes in for Leila Ouahabi. Clàudia Pina and Esther González also started in the Spanish front line ahead of Salma Paralluelo and Athenea del Castillo.
The Line ups
These are the official lineups as presented by UEFA, in reality especially the Swiss setup was different. We’ll talk about that more in this match report.
SUI: Peng; Riesen, Maritz, Wälti, Calligaris, Beney; Vallotto, Ivelj, Reuteler; Schertenleib, Crnogorčević
ESP: Coll, Carmona, Aleixandri, Paredes, Batlle, Putellas, Guijarro, Bonmatí, Pina, González, Caldentey
The Action
Switzerland started the game off energetically with an attack that ended up in a Lia Wälti shot over the goal. But Switzerland were forced to defend for a longer period of time soon after. Nadine Riesen gave away Switzerland’s third penalty of the tournament for a late challenge on Mariona Caldentey. The latter took the penalty herself and drew loud boos from the Switzerland crowd that soon turned into loud cheers when she missed.
Switzerland sat low as waves and waves of Spain attacks came and only diligent defending by the hosts prevented La Roja from making their mark on the match. Switzerland themselves almost made a mark of their own thanks to a good attack. driven by new Manchester City recruit Iman Beney. After that brief respite it was all Spain again with Pina coming close twice when a free kick by the youngster was saved by Livia Peng and another shot went just wide. Spain came close again when Irene Paredes headed the ball onto the post, but other than that, Switzerland’s first half defending was solid.
The question was whether the Swiss would be able to keep that up in the second half. They had been dealing with a cold virus running through the camp in the week leading up to the game, forcing Pia Sundhage to cancel Tuesday’s training. But still they looked good at the start of the second half, not afraid to take on Spain with some good balls over the top. With that the game opened up more. Spain almost scored from a corner with the ball hitting the post twice in a defensive scramble. Fresh off the bench, Swiss youngster Alayah Pilgrim ran in behind the defensive line, forcing a flying save from Cata Coll, but she had mistimed her run and was flagged offside.
It looked like Switzerland were beginning to believe they could achieve this impossible. But then, the inevitable happens. Substitute Athenea del Castillo scored her second goal of the tournament with a beautiful back heel assist by Aitana Bonmatí.
Switzerland kept going for the ball in behind, but Pina scored to make it 2-0. It will be a controversial goal in Switzerland. It was scored just after the referee let the game play on after Lia Wälti appealed for a foul. Pina played on and puts the ball in the back of the net with a trademark Pina shot into the far corner.
Switzerland looked frustrated and impatient to get the ball in the back of the Spain net at times but kept defending with discipline. Eventually La Nati gave away another penalty when Iman Beney mistimed a challenge on Athenea.
With Caldentey off the pitch, Alexia Putellas stepped up to take the spot kick, but it is saved by Chelsea’s new recruit Livia Peng. Noelle Maritz was then sent off in the 92nd minute for a challenge on substitute Salma Paralluelo, as she made the tackle, she got the ball but also hits Paralluelo’s ankle. Paralluelo was through on goal. Ultimately, it does not matter as the referee blows the final whistle after 93 minutes of play.
Analysing the Swiss set up
The Spanish midfield is widely talked about, but we will focus here on the Swiss set up. It was designed to try and take advantage of Spain’s weaknesses, which lie in their defence. The Spanish defenders are not the fastest and earlier on in the tournament Belgium had shown that there are opportunities on the counter attack with a clever ball in behind. On the other side of the pitch, the Spanish attack is very potent having scored 14 goals in the group stage. The Swiss defence had to be spot on from the start.
Switzerland’s official line up contained a back five with Wälti in defence and Ivelj taking up the defensive midfield position. In reality, the Swiss initially played more like a 4-4-1-1 with Wälti sitting very low, just in front of the defensive line. Crnogorcevic played at right back with Iman Beney moving up front, offering a lot of threat on the counter attack with her speed. Sydney Schertenleib sat just a bit lower in front of a midfield consisting of Wälti, Vallotto, Ivelj and Reuteler.
During the Spanish build up, Swiss left back Nadine Riesen veered quite centrally leaving a lot of space to attack for la Roja. They did not move the ball quickly enough to that side, allowing the full Swiss defense to get behind the ball with a lot of players. Alternatively, Vallotto or Ivelj covered the space Riesen left open. The Spanish did become dangerous on occasion on their right after Pina moved there and Batlle made some overlapping runs.
In the second half the Spanish managed to find joy in the central areas, but again, the Swiss were disciplined in their defending. Both goals did come from those areas. The Swiss amped up their counter attacking game after the break, with youngsters Alayah Pilgrim and Leila Wandeler coming on and taking on the Spanish defence. Pilgrim especially made an impact by stretching the Spanish defence, but she mistimed her run a few times, causing her to be flagged for offside.
The worries pre-match were that the Swiss would not be able to keep up with the Spaniards, especially after that cold virus hit their camp. Their game plan was clever though, and kept Spain at bay for much of the game. Being able to bring on some fresh legs off the bench helped them too. But in the end, the quality of Montse Tomé’s team gave La Roja the edge over the sheer will power and game management of Pia Sundhage’s charges.
