National team form check Wälti setting the pace is back ++ Schertenleib is hot ++ Many question marks in defense

135 days before the start of the European Championship, the first national team meeting of the year takes place. Who is in form and who has room for improvement? Here is blue Sport's big national team check ahead of the first international matches of the year.

On Friday, Switzerland will play Iceland in the Nations League at the Letzigrund, followed by an away game against Norway four days later. Switzerland will also play against both teams at the European Championships. The time for big experiments is over; slowly but surely, it's time for national team coach Pia Sundhage to fine-tune the team.

National team coach Pia Sundhage"As a child, I had to play football as a boy and was called Pelle"

 

Elvira Herzog

The national team's number 1 has made a good start to the new year with two wins from three Bundesliga matches. Although she did not keep a clean sheet in the 4-1 win against Potsdam, she has only conceded one goal in each of her first three games in 2025.

 

Livia Peng

Livia Peng already has four games under her belt at Werder Bremen. In the cup, she made a strong save in the 1:0 win against Leverkusen and played her part in her team reaching the semi-finals. On Sunday, she prevented a heavier defeat against leaders Bayern Munich (0:1). Peng would be ready should Herzog be ruled out.

 

Nadine Böhi

The 21-year-old FC St.Gallen regular goalkeeper should be proud of her national team call-up, but Herzog and Peng are standing in front of her, which is why she is unlikely to be called up.

 

Eseosa Aigbogun

Aigbogun has played 99 international matches, but none under Sundhage. Aigbogun was out for months last year due to a cruciate ligament rupture. The 31-year-old made five appearances in her first nine competitive matches at Italian top-flight club AS Roma in 2025, only playing the full distance once.

 

Luana Bühler

A safe bet in central defense for the national team, she is currently going through a difficult phase at Tottenham. She didn't feature in four of the first six competitive games, but played in two of them. The best thing about Sunday's 5-0 defeat in the derby against Arsenal was that she was on the bench for the game.

 

Viola Calligaris

Calligaris leads the table with Juve and on Sunday there is a 3-2 away win in the first leg of the Cup semi-final against Fiorentina to celebrate. However, Calligaris, who plays in the center of defence for the national team, has had a difficult time of late and often sits on the bench. In 2024, she was still in the starting eleven most of the time.

 

Noelle Maritz

The 29-year-old has impressed for years with her consistency. Maritz is a mainstay at Aston Villa and has played in four out of six competitive matches this year, most recently three times in a row.

 

Lara Marti

Although the 25-year-old plays in almost every game at Leipzig, she is not an undisputed regular. She also usually sits on the bench in the national team, but handles her role as a supplementary player extremely well, which plays into her hands with regard to the European Championship.

 

Nadine Riesen

Frankfurt play a top season, but on Sunday they suffer a bitter 1:6 defeat against Wolfsburg. Riesen is substituted at the break with the score at 0:5 and helps to stabilize the defence. She gets her minutes in Frankfurt, but is rarely in the starting eleven.

 

Julia Stierli

While Bühler and Calligaris, her rivals in the battle for a place in the center of defence, have to fight for every minute at the club, Stierli is an undisputed regular at Freiburg. At the weekend, she contributed the assist for the second goal in the 2-0 win against Cologne.

 

Lia Wälti (C)

In 2024, the national team captain only played three international matches due to injuries and a potentially life-threatening abscess. Now the pace-setter in central midfield is back. On Sunday, she played the full distance in the 5-0 win against Tottenham in front of 56,748 spectators(highlights in the video). She has played in seven of Arsenal's eight matches this calendar year. Wälti is ready for the upcoming international matches.

 

Ramona Bachmann

As the championship doesn't start in the USA until March, Bachmann is still in the middle of his preparations. It remains to be seen whether he will make the starting eleven under these circumstances. But Sundhage knows what she has in the 34-year-old anyway. On Saturday, Bachmann shone on Instagram with words addressed to her pregnant wife.

 

Iman Beney

Whenever you talk to national team coach Pia Sundhage about Iman Beney, she goes into raptures. In the 2-0 win against Aarau, Beney showed good form to start the new year and scored the second goal. On Saturday, Beney also scores in the Cup against Servette and keeps YB's title dream alive for a long time - but YB ultimately loses to the defending champions on penalties. Beney herself does not start there, however.

 

Alena Bienz

Cologne are third bottom of the Bundesliga but have already picked up two points in their first three games of the new year, although they have yet to score a goal. The 21-year-old attacking player has only scored one goal in her 16 appearances in all competitions this season and has yet to set one up. The fact that she was called up to replace Alisha Lehmann may therefore come as a surprise, as Riola Xhemaili, a player who is busy scoring goals at PSV Eindhoven, was not included.

 

Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic

163 international caps are just as much a record as her 74 goals in national team kit. Even if she is no longer an undisputed regular, she can help the team with her heading power in both offense and defense, and her experience is also an asset. However, her new season in the USA does not begin for a few weeks yet.

 

Naina Inauen

Naina Inauen receives her first ever national team call-up. The 24-year-old was born in Davos but grew up in Norway, where her parents own a sled dog racing stable. The midfielder played for St.Gallen in the 2020/21 season, but was always involved in Norway before and after that. She has been playing for Lyn Football since last summer, where she is an undisputed regular and finished the season in mid-table. She made her last competitive appearance in mid-November, as the new season in Norway had not yet started. It is therefore all the more surprising that she has now been called up for the national team for the first time.

 

Noemi Ivelj

In the last game of the year, Ivelj is substituted at the break and plays a cheeky game against the European champions from England (0:1). The 18-year-old is an undisputed regular at GC and has every chance of making the European Championship squad. After the European Championships, a move abroad is also likely to be on the cards.

 

Alayah Pilgrim

Pilgrim was out injured for a long time and has only played three international matches under Sundhage. She recently made four consecutive partial appearances for the Romans, but never played more than 25 minutes and is yet to score in the new year. The 21-year-old has shown in her previous appearances for the national team that she can be an asset to the offense with her speed, but there are some question marks over her form ahead of the first international matches of the year.

 

Seraina Piubel

Piubel has already made seven competitive appearances this year, most recently coming off the bench twice. Under Sundhage, she has yet to make a major impact for the national team, but her performances at the club have earned her another call-up.

 

Géraldine Reuteler

Reuteler was voted Swiss Footballer of the Year and showed at the start of the new year why she deserves this award. In the first three games, she scored three goals and provided one assist. In Sunday's 6-1 defeat against Wolfsburg, however, Reuteler did not get up to speed either. Frankfurt may have lost the lead in the table, but with a deficit of just three points to Bayern Munich, they are still a candidate for the championship. Reuteler is likely to be a starter for the national team.

 

Sydney Schertenleib

Schertenleib is gradually being introduced to the first team at Barcelona and only makes sporadic appearances for the professionals. On Sunday, the 18-year-old came on as a substitute in the 75th minute against Madrid C.W. and scored a remarkable goal shortly before the end to make the final score 5-1. It was Schertenleib's first goal in the team of world stars. Everyone knows that she knows what to do with the ball. But to force her way into the national team starting eleven, she needs to step up her game at the back.

 

Meriame Terchoun

Terchoun is Sundhage's all-purpose weapon who can be deployed almost anywhere. She has already scored three goals this calendar year, one of them in Sunday's 2-1 win over Reims. It's beautiful how she shakes off her opponent and then finishes with ice-cold precision.

 

Smilla Vallotto

The 20-year-old underlined her value to the national team twice and three times over last year. In the European Championship qualifiers, she set up six goals in six games and scored one herself. She also shone as an assist provider in the test matches against Australia and France. Now that Lia Wälti is back, she should only get stronger. However, she should not be expected to hit top form just yet, as the season in Sweden has yet to begin.

 

Naomi Luyet

Naomi Luyet took the hearts of the national team fans by storm last year with her unforgettable dream goal against France. The YB regular is currently recovering from an injury. In mid-January, she received two awards at the Swiss Football Night: The 19-year-old was named the best young player and the best player in the Swiss Women's Super League.

 

Alisha Lehmann

Alisha Lehmann is not getting up to speed at Juventus Turin, often sitting on the bench or having to make short appearances. And now she's also being slowed down by a thigh injury and has to declare a forfeit for the first two international matches of the year.

 

Coumba Sow

Sow is a starter at FC Basel, is involved in the title race and is in the cup semi-final. In December, blue Sport wrote in the big European Championship casting: "Sow's chances of jumping on the European Championship bandwagon are good. However, she could also be 'sacrificed' to make room for a younger player." The 30-year-old will not actually be in the squad for the first match of the year. This will only motivate Sow even more to step on the gas at the club, as she naturally wants to take part in the home European Championships. She has already made a start. On Saturday, she converted the penalty in the Cup quarter-final against St. Gallen to make it 1-0 and remained the only scorer in the match.

 

Riola Xhemaili

Why has Riola Xhemaili once again not been called up? Sundhage's answer is evasive and says that the train has not yet left the station and that she can force her way into the club with good performances. But the 21-year-old has actually been doing that all season. In the last three competitive games, the undisputed PSV Eindhoven regular has scored two goals and contributed an assist. PSV are in second place in the league, one point behind Ajax Amsterdam, and their dream of reaching the quarter-finals of the cup is still alive.

 

Svenja Fölmli

In November 2023, Fölmli tore the cruciate ligament in her left knee. She had already suffered the same injury in her right knee a year earlier and missed the World Cup in the summer of 2023 as a result. This year, she made partial appearances in the first three competitive matches, scoring a dream goal on her comeback. The international matches are probably still too early for Fölmli, but the 22-year-old should be kept on the radar.

"A goal like that is also a statement"Svenja Fölmli works her magic again - after two cruciate ligament ruptures, she wants to return to the national team

Venues, groups, ticketsEverything you need to know about the Women's EURO 2025 in Switzerland