Norway striker Elisabeth Terland deplored his team’s failure to capitalize on key moments after a late defensive error allowed Cristiana Girelli to score his second goal, sending Italy to the Euro 2025 semi-finals on Wednesday with a 2-1 victory.
“I just think we did not take our great moments, even if we had momentum, and they did it”, “ said Terland, who was presented in the second half to pursue a second goal for Norway. “These are the moments that win the game, so unfortunately, it happened like that today.”
Norway seemed to have the advantage while their quarter-final of the European female championship approached 90 minutes with the score equally 1-1, but the late head of Girelli on a deep cross of Sofia Cantore put their hopes.
The 2013 finalists had lagged behind when Girelli obtained his first goal at the start of the second half and their misery was aggravated by Captain Ada Hegerberg by missing a penalty.
But when Hegerberg equalized in the 66th minute, the pendulum was swaying in favor of the Scandinavians, only for Italy to give it a late Knockout.
“It was a first half in which Italy was the best, but we improved in the second”, “ said Norwegian defender Maren Mjelde. “We had a good control, then suddenly, they seemed to withdraw a goal from nothing.”
The Italians had targeted the right flank of Norway all night with the precise delivery of cantore to take Norwegian defense to the dusk.
“We knew they were good cross and in the box, they had a lot of players in the box, and it is difficult to stand here now”, “ Said Mjelde. “I thought we were going to go to 90 minutes, then maybe restart.”
Italy will face the winner of the quarter -final confrontation Thursday between Sweden and England in Zurich.
(Tagstotranslate) Football (T) Euro Women (T) Cristiana Girelli (T) Elisabeth Terland (T) Sofia Cantore (T) Ada Hegerberg (T) Maren Mjelde (T) Norway W (T) Italy W (T) England W (T) Sweden W (T) Global