Women’s Euro 2025: Hosts Face Their Moment of Truth

Spain vs Switzerland

Switzerland’s Women’s Euro 2025 adventure continues on Friday when they meet tournament favourites Spain in a do-or-die clash at the Stade de Suisse.

This match will be a monumental challenge for the hosts. Spain manager Montserrat Tome watched her team dismantle Group B with three victories and 14 goals, winning the group by a clear five points. Meanwhile, the Swiss squeezed through to the knockout phase thanks to a dramatic draw in their final game.

Switzerland manager Pia Sundhage has been in charge of the national side for two years after managing Brazil for four, and before that, Sweden and the USA for five years each. The 65-year-old has coached the best international sides in the world, but if she can mastermind a win over Spain on Friday, then surely that will count as one of her finest ever achievements.

La Roja are reigning world champions and Nations League champions, and the Women’s Euro 2025 betting odds say they are in great shape to complete a grand slam, while Switzerland are way out at an SBOTOP price of 11.56 to win this quarter-final.

It’s 23^rd against second in the FIFA World Rankings, but this match is 11 versus 11, and Switzerland will start the game believing they can pull off a major shock in front of their fans.  

 

Talking Points

Swiss hope to keep their momentum

After losing to Norway and beating Iceland in their first two group games, Switzerland faced a winner-takes-all clash against Finland, and they came within minutes of crashing out of the competition. In all the group games, the most memorable of the Women’s Euro 2025 highlights came at the Stade de Geneve as 26,000 fans erupted when Riola Xhemaili tapped home a dramatic stoppage time leveller to send the Swiss through to the knockouts and push the plucky Fins out of the qualification spot.

Finland needed a win, and they thought they had it when Natalia Kuikka converted a 79^th minute penalty. But as the home crowd began to eye the exits, Frankfurt midfielder Geraldine Reuteler beat the Finland defence to tee up a simple goal for Xhemaili.

Switzerland has not been a fertile ground for women’s football in Europe, and the hosts came into the tournament with the unhelpful news circulating that they had lost a warm-up game 7-1 against a U15s side. But Xhemali’s late strike against Finland has ignited a new passion in the fans and now the Swiss are desperate to keep some of that momentum.

And the hosts have a real star of the future in 18-year-old Manchester City forward Iman Beney who was in superb form throughout the group stage.

 

Ruthless Roja

Spain announced their intentions with an opening day 5-0 rout over neighbours Portugal before hammering Belgium 6-2 and finishing with a 3-1 win over Italy. La Roja had already qualified when they met the Azzurre, and they were naturally a little less intense in the opening stages, with one eye on the quarter-finals. And they were caught out by Italy, who had already hit the woodwork when Elisabetta Oliviero put the Azzurre ahead with a lethal finish.

That woke La Roja up, and they equalised within four minutes through Athena del Castillo after good work from Alexia Putellas. Italy began the second half on the front foot, but Spain clicked through the gears and Barcelona star Patricia Guijarro fired home the second early in the half. Esther Gonzalez made the game safe with her fourth goal of the competition, while Putellas made her fourth assist to add to her three goals.

France is the team Spain are keeping their eyes on as they charge relentlessly towards the final, but they will need to be at their ruthless best to avoid any slip-ups in the meantime, starting with Switzerland on Friday.

 

History

This is Switzerland’s first appearance at a Euros quarter-final, though they did reach the knockout stage of the 2023 World Cup.

With five wins to one La Roja have had the better of the head-to-head meetings, scoring 17 goals to two in the last three encounters, including a 7-1 thrashing last time out.

In terms of recent form, Switzerland have won two, drawn one, and lost three of their last six games, while Spain have won all six. In fact, the Swiss win over Iceland was only their second in 10 games in 2025. Meanwhile, Spain have won nine of their 10 matches in this calendar year.

 

Betting Tip

Spain are priced at 1.07 to win this clash with the draw at 7.56. While Switzerland will have a passionate home crowd behind them, if La Roja are on their game, then I fear there could be a messy end for the hosts.

   

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