By Philip O’Connor
Soccer-Hegerberg’s heroics help Norway to scrape to victory over Swiss
July 2 – With her side 1-0 down to hosts Switzerland in their Women’s Euro 2025 opener, Norway captain Ada Hegerberg chose her moment, leaping to bury a second-half header from a corner that put them back in the game, and then playing a major part in forcing the own goal that gave them a 2-1 win four minutes later.
“Momentum,” Hegerberg said simply when asked what was going through her mind as she waited for the corner to be taken.
“It was important with momentum sometimes you just don’t think, you let the instinct talk and you know, great execution from Vilde , and it was all about being in the right place,” she told reporters.
“I’m not going to lie but scoring goals is never easy. So you take nothing for granted some people do but, as a player, you never do. I’ve been very focused on how we always can manage to make the team improve.
“Because you’re a striker, so obviously think about goals but in the end, nothing is easy with the international level and you’ve got to fight for it all, so every goal is important.”
Hegerberg and Norway were all at sea in the first half, struggling to create anything of note and conceding a goal to a marauding Swiss side looking to take their chance in front of a fanatical, noisy home crowd as they took the lead.
But Norway’s side is full of both skill and guile and they came out with a more direct approach in the second half, slowing down the game and killing the spaces the Swiss had exploited ruthlessly in the opening 45 minutes.
Hegerberg apologised for the penalty miss that led to a nervy ending for the 1,500 Norwegian fans at the game and the millions more watching back home.
“Winning an opener with your own crowd in the stands, all the people cheering at us from home, we wanted to give it to them as well, you know, so my heart is happy,” Hegerberg said.
Norway top their group on three points and take on second-placed Finland, who beat Iceland 1-0 in the tournament’s first game earlier in the day, on Sunday.
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