Switzerland lifted by record home support at Women's EURO 2025
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
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Wherever Switzerland have played at UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, a wave of red shirts has followed. The hosts have been backed by an electrifying home crowd, helping to propel the team to a blockbuster quarter-final against Spain.
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Ahead of Switzerland's Group A encounter against Iceland, 14,000 fans walked together through the streets of Bern on their way to Stadion Wankdorf.
The match drew 29,658 spectators in total, building on the 34,063 who filled St. Jakob-Park in Basel for the hosts' opener against Norway – a record attendance for a Switzerland women's national team match.
Needing just a point in their final group game against Finland to advance, Switzerland once again felt the full force of home support as 26,388 fans packed into the Stade de Genève. A stoppage-time equaliser from Riola Xhemaili secured a dramatic 1-1 draw, clinching a place in the Women's EURO quarter-finals for the first time.
"It means an awful lot. We all know that it is a unique opportunity for every player in the squad, we will probably never experience something like this again. We want to savour every moment and enjoy it as much as we can."
'Taking my breath away'
With more than 170 appearances for Switzerland, Ana-Maria Crnogorčević has been a mainstay of the national team for 15 years.
Despite her wealth of experience, nothing has compared with playing in front of a home crowd at Women's EURO 2025.
"Playing here for Switzerland is indescribable," she says. "We weren't even able to imagine it before. The [attendance] record was somewhere around 17,000, I believe, and now having 34,000 spectators and such an atmosphere is incredible.
"All my friends were part of the fan parade. I was thinking to myself, would I rather be on the bus or in the crowd right now? We couldn’t have dreamt of that.
"Playing a tournament at home in Switzerland is taking my breath away."
Switzerland captain Lia Wälti – who has been a ubiquitous presence on billboards and advertisements across the host country during the tournament – has words of gratitude for the fans.
"We can feel you, we can see you, we can hear you and we’re so thankful that we can experience that," she says. "Without the fans it wouldn’t be half as good as it is right now.
"We do feel really supported, we do feel really special at this moment in time. We hope they keep supporting us, they keep turning up and they’ll also support us in the near future."
Building on momentum
For the players, the passionate backing has done more than lift performance. It’s also revealed the potential of the tournament's impact on the women's game in Switzerland.
This surge of interest in the host nation will be capitalised on by the Swiss Football Association through their legacy plan 'Here to Stay', developed in collaboration with UEFA.
From doubling the number of girls and women playing football in Switzerland to strengthening the standards, venues and visibility of the national Women's Super League, the legacy plan will ensure the players' hopes of a lasting impact will be realised.
"I have very high expectations," says Crnogorčević. "I hope the enthusiasm we see in the stadium persists. We will be playing qualifying games for the FIFA Women's World Cup, for the Women's EURO, and we will be playing UEFA Nations League games again. So, I hope that this enthusiasm stays.
"I hope we will have larger audiences at the home games, but I also hope that it will give the domestic league a boost, so that we can progress."
For the young girls in Switzerland inspired by Women's EURO 2025, Wälti gave some advice.
"Keep believing in your dreams," she says. "Set yourself goals, and don’t ever let anybody tell you that it’s not possible either because you’re a girl, or because you’re not good enough. Just keep believing in it, and as long as you have fun, stay on it and don’t give up."