Latest news with #MarenMjelde
Straits Times
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Norway rue missed opportunities and late lapse as Euro 2025 dream crushed by Italy
Soccer Football - UEFA Women's Euro 2025 - Quarter Final - Norway v Italy - Stade de Geneve, Geneva, Switzerland - July 16, 2025 Norway's Elisabeth Terland, Maren Mjelde, Ingrid Engen and Tuva Hansen look dejected after Italy's Cristiana Girelli scores their second goal REUTERS/Denis Balibouse GENEVA - Norway forward Elisabeth Terland lamented her team's failure to capitalise on key moments after a late defensive error allowed Cristiana Girelli to score her second goal, sending Italy to the Euro 2025 semi-finals on Wednesday with a 2-1 win. "I just think we didn't take our big moments, even though we had momentum, and they did," Terland, who was introduced in the second half to chase a second goal for Norway, told Reuters. "It's those moments that win you the game, so unfortunately, it went like that today." Norway looked like they had the edge as their Women's European Championship quarter-final approached 90 minutes with the score tied at 1-1, but Girelli's late header off a deep cross from Sofia Cantore dashed their hopes. The 2013 finalists had gone behind when Girelli got her first goal early in the second half and their misery was compounded by captain Ada Hegerberg missing a penalty. But when Hegerberg equalised in the 66th minute the pendulum swung in favour of the Scandinavians, only for Italy to deal a late knockout blow. "It was a first half in which Italy were best, but we improved ourselves in the second," Norway defender Maren Mjelde told Reuters. "We had good control, and then suddenly they seemed to get a goal out of nothing." The Italians had targeted Norway's right flank all night with Cantore's precise delivery catching the Norwegian defence off guard. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Singapore 2 weeks' jail for man caught smuggling over 1,800 vapes and pods into Singapore Singapore Coffee Meets Bagel's Singpass check: Why I'll swipe right on that Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his daughter, 2, while driving van without licence Sport 'Like being in a washing machine with 40 deg C water': Open water swimmers brave challenging conditions Singapore Primary 1 registration: 38 primary schools to conduct ballot in Phase 2A Singapore ComfortDelGro to introduce new taxi cancellation, waiting fee policy Business Cathay Cineplexes gets fresh demands to pay up $3.3m debt for Century Square, Causeway Point outlets "We knew that they were good at crosses and in the box, they got a lot of players in the box and it's tough to stand here now," Mjelde said. "I thought we'd get to 90 minutes and then maybe re-start." Italy will face the winner of Thursday's quarter-final clash between Sweden and England in Zurich. REUTERS
CNA
15-07-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Norway's Hegerberg seeks to inspire as Euros enter knockout phase
NEUCHATEL, Switzerland :The women's game has come a long way since the last time Norway played a knockout game at the Euros, agonisingly losing the 2013 final 1-0 to Germany with a callow, 18-year-old Ada Hegerberg, now team captain, starting up front. At that tournament in Sweden, a combined total of 28,814 spectators saw Norway's group games, a number dwarfed by the 34,063 who saw their 2025 opener, a 2-1 win over hosts Switzerland in which Hegerberg equalised with a bullet header, and the 30-year-old has played a greater role than most in the growth of the game. "You've got to take care of the next generation as well. We're here to inspire, we're here to be open, and that's what we want to do," Hegerberg told Reuters at a training session open to fans near the team's base in Neuchatel where locals had come in their droves to watch. Together with vice-captain Caroline Graham Hansen and former captain Maren Mjelde, Hegerberg came so close to winning in 2013, but German keeper Nadine Angerer saved two penalties to thwart the young stars. "Me and Caro (Graham Hansen), we haven't talked a lot about that game when we were younger, because I don't think we realised then what an opportunity that was. But we talk about it today and we're like, damn it, we were one goal away from winning a Euros," Hegerberg explained. "And I think people tend to forget that, but you know it was an incredible experience. Things have changed a lot since, football has changed a lot, but, yeah, it's starting to become a long, long time ago, and we've experienced a whole deal after that." To say that Hegerberg has experienced a lot since then is something of an understatement; she has won 10 French league titles and six Champions League titles with Olympique Lyonnais and a slew of individual awards including the first women's Ballon d'Or in 2018. She has also spent almost five years in self-imposed exile from the national team in protest at how the Norwegian Football Federation treated women's football. She returned in 2022 and has since taken over the captain's armband from Mjelde, ushering in a new era. "It's a huge responsibility, something that I take very seriously, very inspired to take on that role as well. And you know, Caro is my vice captain, and we've been in the game for a long while," she said. "It's all about transmitting experience calmness when that's needed, power when that's needed, you know, I learn an awful lot, being in that role... I'm myself with them and authenticity is the only way." In contrast to many teams in the modern game, the Norwegians continue to be very open, taking time to sign autographs and take selfies after games and training, and splitting the players into groups to make them available to the media. For Hegerberg, that openness is key to growing the game. "It's our day off after a game but I need to get there (to the fans) as soon as possible as well," she said, looking over her shoulder at the throngs of young admirers waiting for a moment with her. "We're still coming here because it's important people are showing up to see us. We want to give back. I think the whole (Norwegian) federation, with Lisa Klaveness running it, has this vibe that we want to bring as many people into this vibe." Her effect on young female fans is visible around the training pitch in Neuchatel as young girls with their hair fixed in Hegerberg's signature power braid wait for her and, as always with the iconic striker, there is a story behind it that has its roots in attention to detail and her will to win. "I can almost do it blind now," she says of her hairstyle. "It comes from the day when my dad told me that I was touching my hair too much while playing football. "I was around maybe eight and he was like, 'you spend too much energy touching your hair, so you've got to do something about it', and that's where the braid came in." That braid has followed her from her first team in Norway through a Women's Euro final and now again into the knockout stage where Norway meet Italy in Geneva on Wednesday, and where more girls in the stands will mimic her style.
Reuters
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Graham Hansen's intuition lifts Norway bid for Euro redemption
July 6 (Reuters) - Caroline Graham Hansen's winning strike for Norway against Finland on Sunday will barely register among the best goals of her career, but it almost guarantees her country a shot of redemption after years of Euro heartbreak. Her cross from a tight angle dipped over the Finnish keeper before hitting the far post and flying into the net in the 84th minute, a just reward after she displayed the full extent of her dribbling skills to set up the chance. "It was intuition, you try the thing no-one expects, and then it goes in. I have no better explanation than that," Graham Hansen told Norway's TV2 after her side's 2-1 win. "It's lovely, especially when it was such a messy game. You feel that you are not quite where you want to be, so getting three points and getting to the quarter-finals is lovely," she added. After beating hosts Switzerland 2-1 in their opener on Wednesday, Norway are all but guaranteed a spot in the last eight. If Iceland fail to beat Switzerland later on Sunday, the Norwegians will go through to the knockout stage as group winners and will play the runners-up in Group B, which features Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal. For the likes of Graham Hansen, team captain Ada Hegerberg and former captain Maren Mjelde, getting through to the knockout stages will offer them a chance at redemption following more than a decade of under-achievement at the Euros. That trio all featured in Norway's last game in the knockout stage of the competition, the 2013 final, in which Graham Hansen won one of two penalties the Norwegians missed in a 1-0 defeat by Germany. They exited at the group stage in 2017 and 2022, suffering a record 8-0 defeat to eventual winners England last time out. "We want to get her to take people on, there's nobody better at that than Caroline, and she finished with a fantastic goal that is incredibly important for us," Hegerberg said. Norway face Iceland in their final group game on Thursday.
CNA
06-07-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Graham Hansen's intuition lifts Norway bid for Euro redemption
Caroline Graham Hansen's winning strike for Norway against Finland on Sunday will barely register among the best goals of her career, but it almost guarantees her country a shot of redemption after years of Euro heartbreak. Her cross from a tight angle dipped over the Finnish keeper before hitting the far post and flying into the net in the 84th minute, a just reward after she displayed the full extent of her dribbling skills to set up the chance. "It was intuition, you try the thing no-one expects, and then it goes in. I have no better explanation than that," Graham Hansen told Norway's TV2 after her side's 2-1 win. "It's lovely, especially when it was such a messy game. You feel that you are not quite where you want to be, so getting three points and getting to the quarter-finals is lovely," she added. After beating hosts Switzerland 2-1 in their opener on Wednesday, Norway are all but guaranteed a spot in the last eight. If Iceland fail to beat Switzerland later on Sunday, the Norwegians will go through to the knockout stage as group winners and will play the runners-up in Group B, which features Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal. For the likes of Graham Hansen, team captain Ada Hegerberg and former captain Maren Mjelde, getting through to the knockout stages will offer them a chance at redemption following more than a decade of under-achievement at the Euros. That trio all featured in Norway's last game in the knockout stage of the competition, the 2013 final, in which Graham Hansen won one of two penalties the Norwegians missed in a 1-0 defeat by Germany. They exited at the group stage in 2017 and 2022, suffering a record 8-0 defeat to eventual winners England last time out. "We want to get her to take people on, there's nobody better at that than Caroline, and she finished with a fantastic goal that is incredibly important for us," Hegerberg said.
Reuters
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Mjelde hails Hegerberg as Norway seek to advance at Women's Euro
July 5 (Reuters) - Norway defender Maren Mjelde had no issue handing over the captain's armband to Ada Hegerberg ahead of the Women's Euros, and the striker responded by scoring a vital equaliser in their side's 2-1 Group A win over hosts Switzerland that puts them firmly in control of their own destiny. The Norwegians take on second-placed Finland in Sion on Sunday knowing that a win for either team will see them safely through to the knockout stage, and Mjelde is hoping that Hegerberg can perform more of her heroics against the Finns. "She's brilliant. I was so happy for her to open the tournament with a goal, it's good for the strikers to get the goals. Really pleased for her, pleased for the team, because we needed that win," Mjelde told Reuters. After a rudderless first half that saw the Swiss dominate and take the lead, the 35-year-old Mjelde said her teammates had to pull themselves together at the break. "We all knew that it wasn't good enough, but if they could do it in 45 minutes, we could turn it around in 45 minutes. And I think that's what we agreed on going out there, we promised each other that we would do everything, give everything out there for 45 minutes," she said. "We promised each other that, and I think we did that." Though the Norwegians enjoyed the victory over the Swiss, Mjelde said that there would be little time to celebrate with the Finns up next. "I can never breathe (out), I feel, in the Euros, because it's so tight between games. We've had a good start -- there's always things to work on, but I think it's also good to reinforce the good things that you do, and take that to the next game," Mjelde said. Switzerland take on Iceland, who both lost their opening games by a single goal, in Bern in the group's other game later on Sunday.
