Norway pay the penalty in Switzerland

Norway suffered a setback in their preparations for this summer's UEFA Women's EURO, succumbing to a 3-1 defeat against Switzerland.

The visitors arrived in Nyon buoyed by a healthy sequence of results and a third-place finish at the Algarve Cup. Optimism soon turned to despondency, however, when Sandy Maendly's free-kick crashed in off the crossbar after two minutes. Ada Hegerberg led Norway's response, showing nimble footwork to engineer a shooting opportunity only to be thwarted by goalkeeper Gaëlle Thalmann.

Switzerland soon wrestled back the initiative and doubled their lead courtesy of Ana Maria Crnogorčević's perfectly placed header. The home side's two-goal advantage was promptly punctured, though, Hegerberg eluding her marker to turn in Ingvild Stensland's centre.

The UEFA Women's EURO 2013 entrants resumed with intent after the restart. A Stensland set piece whistled past a post and Ingvild Isaksen then missed from the spot after Rahel Kiwic had handled in the area. To make matters worse, Switzerland were gifted a penalty of their own 15 minutes from time and Crnogorčević made no mistake.

"It just didn't go our way. The results did not reflect the way we played today," said Norway coach Even Pellerud. Captain Stensland added: "Switzerland are a good team and they have stepped up their game since the appointment of Martina [Voss-Tecklenburg]. I would put them on a par with the Netherlands. Nevertheless, I thought we should have won the game."