Key events
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.
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!
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.
71 min: There wasn’t much contact there, though. VAR is going to have a double-check.
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 …
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.
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!
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.
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.”
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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.
