UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 Preview: Switzerland

Image: The Switzerland women's team. Credit: Home - UEFA Women's Euro 2025

For the European Championship on home soil, Pia Sundhage and her team of coaches put together an amazing team consisting of the following 23 players:

(The squad will be revealed on June 23rd, Below is our prediciton)

Goalkeepers: 

Elvira Herzog (RB Leipzig),Livia Peng (Werder Bremen),Nadine Böhi (St. Gallen)

Defenders:

Noelle Maritz (Aston Villa FC), Viola Calligaris (Juventus FC), Nadine Riesen (Eintracht Frankfurt), Julia Stierli (SC Freiburg)

Midfielders:

Lia Wälti (Captain) (Arsenal FC), Coumba Sow (FC Basel), Seraina Piubel (West Ham United), Geraldine Reuteler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Sydney Schertenleib (FC Barcelona), Smilla Vallotto (Hammarby IF)

Forwards:

Ramona Bachmann (2nd Captain) (Houston Dash), Meriame Terchoun (Dijon FCO)

Alayah Pilgrim (AS Roma), Iman Beney (BSC Young Boys), Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (Seattle Reign FC)

About the coach: Pia Sundhage

Before taking over the head coach role for the Swiss National Team in 2024, she had quite a career herself.

From 1975 to 1996 she earned 146 caps for her National Team of Sweden, scoring 71 goals along the way, which also was the nation’s record for quite some time.

In 1984 she also won the European Championship with Sweden, alongside 10 other trophies with her clubs. 

When she was younger, she has to pretend to be a boy in order to be able play football, they called her “Pelle”

After retiring in 1996, she continued her career on the side of the pitch, starting as player, and then assistant coach.

First in Sweden, then she moved to the United States before returning back to Europe in 2004. The first National Team she was invited with was China, where she was the assistant coach in the year 2007.

In 2008, Sundhage took over the United States Women's National Team and led them to two Olympic Gold medals.

Under Sundhage, the USWNT only lost 10 out of 107  games, which is an impressive record.

Returning back to Sweden in 2012, she took over the Swedish team up until 2017.

After a two year break, Sundhage accepted the job to coach the Brazilian Women’s National Team, but left her post again in 2023.

After Switzerland was on the lookout for a new head coach after Inka Grings, she took over the team in January of 2024, with a contract until the end of 2025.

So far the team had 17 games under Sundhage, winning 7.

Switzerland in past tournaments:

For a long time, we didn't hear a lot about the Swiss national team, since they were not part of any major tournaments.

They hadn’t qualified for a European Championship until 2017 and 2022 where they got eliminated after the group stage both times. 

For the Euros in 2025, Switzerland will be the host so they automatically qualify for this year's tournament.

They hadn’t been part of the Women's World Cup until 2015, where they ended up in 15th place, and also they did not qualify in 2019. In the 2023 World Cup they reached rank 14.

Key Players

There are 45 players currently registered for the first team, although not all of them have earned their first cap.

With 167 caps Ana-Maria Crnogorčević is the most capped player and also the oldest in the team.

The youngest player in the squad is Sydney Schertenleib, she was born in January 2007 (18 years old)

Switzerland has a lot of players with a special skill set, with the most known being the captain Lia Wälti with her incredible tactility and control of the game playing in midfield, and just winning the Women's Champions League with Arsenal FC.

Players like Ramona Bachmann ( who sadly won't be seen during the summer due to an ACL injury), having played for the likes of Chelsea FC, Paris Saint Germain and Wolfsburg, bring a lot of experience and consistency to the team which is essential.

Not having Bachmann this summer will be a miss however we wish her the best in her recovery.

Rising Star

Switzerland's rising star in the sky as of the 2024/2025 season is Sydney Schertenleib.

At just 18 years old, she completed a transfer to the world class side of FC Barcelona, originally meant to play for their 2nd team.

Now she is playing alongside Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas in the first team, which just reached the UEFA Women's Champions League Final with.

Another player to keep an eye out for is Geraldine Reuteler. Her dribbles and lightning fast runs are a challenge for any opposition.

Visibility within Switzerland

With Women’s Football on the rise, Switzerland as the host nation together with the Swiss TV channel SRF and the stadiums in Germany during the Men’s Euros last summer frequently included advertisements promoting the Women's tournament and the company “Swisscom” shot an ad including players of both the men’s and the women's team.

This is a big step forward regarding the visibility of women's football, as there have barely been any ads covering it in the past years.

There have also been trams and buses painted promoting the Euros in the host cities.

Before the event will kick off in Basel on July 2nd, the hosting cities have been hosting small events promoting the tournament, with the vision of encouraging more people to attend the event and to get a first taste of what to expect.

In addition to the informative purpose with facts about the competition, the visitors were able to take part in other events including attempting to take their own shots on goal.

They were also able to see the trophy. The host city of Bern has also secured the captain of the Swiss national team, Lia Wälti as their ambassador:

“For me, the Euro’s in my own country is something I would have never dreamed of. I see it as an incredible privilege and am infinitely grateful to be able to play in such a tournament in Switzerland, especially in Bern in front of our own fans and to represent Switzerland”. 

Success would be

Of course, Switzerland's greatest success would be to win the tournament, especially on home soil.

Though this road will be a tough one for all parties included, since the reigning World and also the European Champions, Spain and England, as well as many other amazing teams with star players will be heading to Switzerland to compete for the trophy.

Switzerland's fixtures for the Euros:

Wednesday, July 2nd: Switzerland vs. Norway (9pm GMT+2), Basel

Sunday, July 6th: Switzerland vs. Iceland (9pm GMT+2), Bern

Thursday, July 10th: Switzerland vs. Finland (9pm GMT+2), Geneva

The group stages are followed by the quarter finals, to be played from July 16th to 19th, before the semi finals on July 22nd and 23rd and the grand finale on July 27th.

A few quick facts...

Team name(s): Swiss National Team, “Nati”

Group for the Euros: Group A

FIFA code: SUI

Captain: Lia Wälti

Head coach: Pia Sundhage (SWE)

Assistant coaches: Anders Johansson (SWE), Lilie Persson (SWE)

Most caps: Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (167)

Top scorer (over all competitions): Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (74)

Key player: Geraldine Reuteler

Rising star: Sydney Schertenleib