The Swiss women's national team will play their last international match of the year in Jerez on Tuesday. The game against Wales will be marked by mourning following the death of Rafel Navarro's father.
02.12.2025, 04:31
02.12.2025, 06:55
SDA
It was not yet the football that Rafel Navarro imagines. On Friday evening, his players developed too little penetration and too few ideas in attack. In defense, they were too vulnerable when conceding goals. The result was a 2:1 defeat against Belgium on the new coach's debut on the sidelines.
It is hardly surprising that Navarro's playing philosophy has not yet been implemented in the Swiss team. The time he had at his disposal during the national team's first match under his leadership was too short. And yet, in certain sequences and above all in the team's alignment, it was clear to see what the 39-year-old Catalan stands for: Ball possession, dominance, attacking football.
The Barça style is catching on
Over the past six years at Barcelona, Navarro has worked with some of the best players in the world, including multiple world champions Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas. As an assistant coach, he also looked after Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and most recently Sydney Schertenleib. "He lives and breathes football. His exercises are fun," says Crnogorcevic during a media appointment. Riola Xhemaili, who had a difficult time at times under Navarro's predecessor Pia Sundhage, speaks of a "different playing philosophy than we had before".
Sundhage placed a lot of emphasis on discipline and defensive stability, while Navarro is an advocate of attacking football. The latter goes down well with the players. "He wants to do a lot with the ball and is always looking for solutions. That's cool," says Géraldine Reuteler, for example.
A blow of fate for Navarro
In the past few days, however, it was not Navarro who led the sessions, but athletics and assistant coach Norbert Callau. The reason for this was a family emergency: Navarro's father passed away on Friday evening after a long illness, as the SFA announced on Monday evening. Navarro left directly after the match against Belgium and only rejoined the team on Monday afternoon. Sport naturally takes a back seat at times like this.
And yet the second test match under the leadership of the new head coach awaits on Tuesday. The opponent is Wales. At the European Championships in the summer, the British team were knocked out of a tough group with the eventual European champions England, France and the Netherlands and had to return home without any points. In seven matches with Wales to date, Switzerland have never been defeated.
A test match in December may seem unimportant in the year of the home European Championship and in view of the circumstances surrounding Navarro, which is also suggested by the 12.00 noon kick-off time. However, in view of the World Cup qualifiers starting in March, the match against Wales is more important than the circumstances would suggest.
