Is 2025 finally Norway's year? Why Ada Hegerberg, Caroline Graham Hansen & co set for big Euros after 12 years of tournament woe

After reaching the final of this tournament in 2013, the Scandinavian nation have endured over a decade of underperformance on the biggest stage

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Tickets

Women's Euro Tickets

• Secure your Women's Euro 2025 tickets for this summer's international tournament
• Location: Switzerland
• Stadiums: Various, including St. Jakob Park, Stadion Wankdorf, Stade de Genève and more
• Date: July 2 – 27
• Final: July 27, St. Jakob Park

From

€149

Buy nowRead More

Accommodation

Where to stay

• Book hotels, apartments and accommodation across Switzerland for the Women's Euros
• Search for places to stay near the stadiums, across Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva and more
• Look for accommodation based on your dates, number of bedrooms, and budget on Booking.com

From

€49

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Kits

Shop your kit

• New kits from adidas, Nike and Puma have been released for the Women's Euro tournament
• Grab your favourite team's kit to support throughout the games
• Search for your team, including Italy, England, Germany and more
• Available in sizes XS – XXL

From

€50

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Tickets

Women's Euro Tickets

• Secure your Women's Euro 2025 tickets for this summer's international tournament
• Location: Switzerland
• Stadiums: Various, including St. Jakob Park, Stadion Wankdorf, Stade de Genève and more
• Date: July 2 – 27
• Final: July 27, St. Jakob Park

From

€149

Buy nowRead More

Accommodation

Where to stay

• Book hotels, apartments and accommodation across Switzerland for the Women's Euros
• Search for places to stay near the stadiums, across Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva and more
• Look for accommodation based on your dates, number of bedrooms, and budget on Booking.com

From

€49

Book nowRead More

Kits

Shop your kit

• New kits from adidas, Nike and Puma have been released for the Women's Euro tournament
• Grab your favourite team's kit to support throughout the games
• Search for your team, including Italy, England, Germany and more
• Available in sizes XS – XXL

From

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Take a look at Norway's squad and, on paper, they could be a dark horse for any tournament. With representatives from Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Arsenal, among others, and some of the very best players on the planet within their ranks, this is a team that one would expect to be a regular in the knockout stages at major tournaments. Yet, in the words of Caroline Graham Hansen at the 2023 Women's World Cup, Norway "go from championship to championship and underperform".

Those comments from the Barca winger came after Norway had suffered a shock defeat to New Zealand in the opening fixture of that tournament. It was the Football Ferns' first-ever World Cup win. "We can't do anything. Then it's a loss," Graham Hansen added, in one of many short and understandably frustrated answers to .

Drawn alongside New Zealand, Switzerland and the Philippines, Norway were expected to storm out of the group and have themselves a strong tournament for the first time in a while. Instead, they qualified in second and were comfortably beaten by Japan in the last 16.

There are parallels to that World Cup at this summer's European Championship, where Norway will once again, despite recent failures, go into their group as the heavy favourites to finish top. Alongside hosts Switzerland, who have never made it to the knockouts at the Euros; Iceland, who have one win in this competition in their history; and Finland, who haven't progressed to a quarter-final since their home Euros in 2009; this is a big opportunity for a squad boasting players like Graham Hansen and Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg. But will they take it?

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  Top quality squad

  It's hard to overstate just how many good individuals are in this Norway team, and it feels important to highlight when discussing their surprising shortcomings. Hegerberg and Graham Hansen are the two stand-out stars, the former a six-time European champion and the all-time top goal-scorer in Women's Champions League history, the latter a three-time Champions League winner who finished as runner-up in the Ballon d'Or voting last year.

  But it's easy to pick out so many other names in Gemma Grainger's squad, too. Frida Maanum and Ingrid Engen are also Champions League winners, Maanum just this year with Arsenal and Engen twice with Barca; Guro Reiten has been a stalwart in a Chelsea side that has dominated England for the last five years, helping them win the treble last term; Tuva Hansen was another player who picked up three trophies this past season, at Bayern Munich.

  Throw in the Atletico Madrid duo of Vilde Boe Risa and Synne Jensen and the Manchester United trio of Elisabeth Terland, Lisa Naalsund and Celin Bizet and there is no shortage of top-level talent in Norway. Signe Gaupset is one of the most exciting teenagers on the planet, too.

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  Over a decade of disappointment

  This has rarely translated to international success, though. When Norway reached the final of Euro 2013, there was understandable excitement about the future. After all, both Hegerberg and Graham Hansen were still just 18 years old, with future Chelsea captain Maren Mjelde, who is still part of the team today, named to the Squad of the Tournament.

  They've struggled to hit those heights since, though. The next two European Championships have seen Norway fail to get out of the group stage, with the lowlight of those two tournaments certainly the 8-0 thumping at the hands of England in 2022. At the World Cup, the last 16 was as far as the Scandinavian nation would go at the 2015 and 2023 editions, with a quarter-final in 2019 the highlight of the last 12 years for a team with the talent to do much more.

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  Chaos and crisis

  The 2023 Women's World Cup was particularly disappointing. Given Norway went into that tournament with Hegerberg back in the squad, having declared herself unavailable until improvements were made within the national team some six years earlier, her return felt like a sign that progress was being made. But the summer was characterised by chaos and crisis.

  There were issues that weren't necessarily under the control of head coach Hege Riise, such as the lack of real defensive depth, but there were decisions made by the former England interim boss that certainly raised eyebrows, such as when she dropped Graham Hansen for Norway's second game, which ended in a draw that put the team in serious danger of going out in the group stages, and her persistence on playing Reiten centrally rather than out wide.

  It all came to a head the day before Norway's final group-stage game when reported that several players in the squad had reacted strongly to Riise's leadership style at the tournament, with them unhappy at the "lack of match management, unclear messages, few concrete measures and feedback when Plan A does not work", among other things.

  Unsurprisingly, despite Norway winning that final group game to progress to the last 16, Riise left her role following the 3-1 loss to Japan in the knockout stages.

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  New guidance

  The identity of Riise's successor was something of a surprise, but Grainger certainly ticked the external box that many Norway players reportedly wanted when Riise was appointed. Having come through the England youth set-up, the 42-year-old had spent the previous three years in charge of Wales, whom she couldn't steer to a first major tournament despite coming close.

  Grainger admitted at the time that she had "no intention" to leave her post with Wales, but that Norway presented her with "an unexpected opportunity" that she "could not turn down". Given the incredible quality in the Norway squad and the potential this team has to take serious leaps on the continental and world stages, her reasoning made sense.