Switzerland keep Euro 2025 dream alive after Reuteler and Pilgrim knock out Iceland | OneFootball

Iceland will be leaving the party early but, following some initial wobbles, the hosts are still going strong.

After losing their tournament opener to Norway, Switzerland ultimately settled a nation’s nerves thanks to a combination of smart ­substitutions on Pia Sundhage’s part and some excellent play from ­Manchester City’s Iman Beney at right wing-back.

Eventually the stage was set for second-half goals from the impressive Géraldine Reuteler and the substitute Alayah Pilgrim to ignite the celebrations among a near 30,000 crowd in Berne. Those fans headed home knowing that a quarter-final place beckons for Sundhage’s Switzerland.

Providing her players do not stumble against Finland in Geneva on Thursday they should be on course to finish behind Norway in Group A and reach the knockout phase of a European ­Championship for the first time.

No matter that they may well end up facing Spain in the last eight, all the indications are that this young team have started to lose their initial inhibitions and really enjoy themselves.

“I’m so happy,” said the Swiss captain, Arsenal’s Lia Wälti. “We got carried, step by step, by our fans. It was an incredible atmosphere.”

Initially though Iceland proved rather awkward guests, almost scoring inside the first minute when Ingibjörg Sigurdardóttir’s half-volley struck the crossbar following her connection with a long throw.

After more than a week of glorious Swiss summer sun heavy rain lashed down on Berne, leaving players from both sides slipping and sliding on the pitch, and forcing the Iceland manager, Thorsteinn Halldórsson, to keep wiping raindrops from his glasses.

Sundhage, sheltering deep in the dugout, watched her team whip in a corner and Svenja Fölmi head goalwards.

When the ball hit Glódis Viggósdóttir it flew into the back of the net and, almost everyone bar the 2,000 Iceland fans present went wild. Or at least they did until VAR intervened to correctly disallow that effort for a foul in the preamble, namely Fölmi’s overly aggressive block on Viggosdóttir.

For a while things turned ­thoroughly niggly and scrappy. There were far too many cheap concessions of possessions, snide fouls, substandard set pieces and disappointing final balls.

Barcelona’s Sydney Schertenleib had the crowd on the edge of their seats whenever she ran at Iceland’s back line but sometimes wayward final decision making betrayed the exciting 18-year-old’s very real talent.

Although Beney, also 18, did her utmost to raise the tone, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the game’s sometimes frightening intensity could not camouflage an absence of quality.

A watershed arrived when Karólína Vilhjálmsdóttir grazed the top of the crossbar with a 20-yard free-kick at the start of the second half. ­Significantly that catalytic moment seemed to inspire Beney to step up her attacking efforts as Sundhage turned to her bench and Switzerland began dominating proceedings.

Swiss fans’ fears that possession can be overrated and is liable to come undone in the face of long Icelandic throws finally faded in the 74th ­minute. When ­Schertenleib swivelled seamlessly and cued up a perfectly poised Reuteler to unleash a beautifully weighted low shot, ­Iceland looked condemned to an earlier than hoped flight back to Reykjavík.

Indeed with Reuteler increasingly influential in midfield, a ­swashbuckling Swiss finale was crowned by Pilgrim’s fabulous, if deflected, 90th-minute finish from the edge of the penalty area.

“We have a really young team,” said Wälti. “In some actions we can be a little but rushed and we wasted a lot of chances before, in the end, we took them.”

Header image: [Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters]