100 days before the opening match of the European Championship against Norway in Basel, national team coach Pia Sundhage announces the squad for the Nations League matches against France and Iceland.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- On April 4, the Swiss women's national team will host France in the Nations League. Four days later, the game in Iceland is on the program.
- After two games, Switzerland, like Iceland, have one point to their name. France lead the table with 6 points ahead of Norway (3).
- Exactly 100 days before the start of the European Championship, national team coach Pia Sundhage announces the squad for the upcoming games. Two experienced players, Alisha Lehmann and Coumba Sow, are missing, and Riola Xhemaili is again not included.
Encouragingly, but surprisingly, Iman Beney is in the squad, although YB announced on Saturday that the 18-year-old would be out for weeks.
However, Alisha Lehmann, Coumba Sow and Riola Xhemaili are not in the squad. Lehmann is usually on the bench at Juve. It's a different story for Sow, who is usually in the starting eleven at FC Basel, and Xhemaili, who is busy scoring goals at PSV Eindhoven and has played her part in keeping her team at the top of the table.
Pia Sundahge says: "If you know the players and look around in Europe and even in the USA where they play, it's getting harder and harder to find these 23 players, because I'd like to have 25, 26 or even 30. There are 23 and we want to give some players who haven't been there a chance. That's why these 23 players were called up this time." In the case of Alisha Lehmann, the lack of match practice is also a problem.
Spanish-Swiss dual national Laia Ballesté from Espanyol Barcelona has been called up for the first time. The 26-year-old is an undisputed regular there. Also in the squad is Freiburg striker Svenja Fölmli, who has suffered two cruciate ligament ruptures in the last three years and last played for Switzerland in October 2022.
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These players are in the squad
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Video of the press conference with Pia Sundhage
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Squad announcement live stream from 2 p.m.
Which players will national team coach Pia Sundhage field for the upcoming Nations League matches against France and Iceland? The squad announcement will be live-streamed from 2pm.
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There are question marks over these players
Ramona Bachmann has only been on the bench in the last two international matches. She has now had to declare a forfeit for the first two games of the new season with Houston Dahs due to injury. However, she is close to a comeback, as she announced on Instagram. Whether she will be called up for the international matches under these circumstances is at least questionable.
Coumba Sow made her national team debut in 2018 and has since played 54 international matches. However, the FC Basel player was not called up for the last round of matches. Will the 30-year-old be called up again this time?
Viola Calligaris is a permanent fixture in the national team and in defense and played the full distance against Iceland and Norway. After that, however, she was no longer in the Juve squad due to injury. If she is fit to play, she will be in the squad, otherwise, logically, she will not.
Laia Ballesté has never been called up for the national team. However, the Espanyol Barcelona regular did make it onto the standby list for the last call-up. The 26-year-old's time could come, especially if Calligaris is unavailable. But even if the Juve defender is included, Sundhage may well give her a chance to showcase herself.
Alisha Lehmann missed the last few international matches due to injury, but was back in the Juve squad afterwards. However, she has only played eight minutes in the last four games and has hardly been able to promote herself at the club for some time.
Riola Xhemaili doesn't seem to be very popular with Pia Sundhage and only made it onto the standby list during the last move. At PSV Eindhoven, she is set and played again at the weekend in the 3-1 win in the top-of-the-table clash against Ajax. She is also busy scoring goals for the Dutch league leaders. She would have earned a call-up based on her performances.
The last time they met, Sundhage pulled a player out of the hat in the shape of Naina Inauen, who nobody in this country had on their radar. Will there be a surprise this time too?
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Iman Beney is in after all
YB announced in a press release that Iman Beney would be out for weeks and would also miss the international matches. This is apparently not the case after all.
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Switzerland's games so far
In the Nations League opener in February, Switzerland drew 0-0 with Iceland at the Letzigrund and lost 2-1 away to Norway. Switzerland will also face both teams at the European Championships at home in the summer.
Table after two matchdays
- France - 6 points (goal difference: 4:2)
- Norway - 3 points (2:2)
- Iceland - 1 point (2:3)
- Switzerland - 1 point (1:2)
