Northern Ireland begin their FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifying campaign later today with arguably the toughest assignment in their group.
They will be facing League B Group 2 top seeds Switzerland at Stade de la Tuilière in Lausanne (6pm kick-off GMT).
Senior women’s team interim manager Kris Lindsay is upbeat ahead of Northern Ireland’s first FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 European qualifier. He knows his team will be up against it, however he says his players are up for the challenge.
Lindsay said: “I am feeling positive. The players’ attitude, their application, how they have trained, has been really, really good. They are in a good frame of mind and there’s a good atmosphere around the group.”
He said he was really looking forward to the game against the Swiss at Stade de la Tuilière.
The interim boss acknowledged that the Switzerland team has plenty of strengths, and is full of players who play in Europe’s top leagues, however he also insisted they have weaknesses and it will be up to Northern Ireland to exploit those weaknesses in Lausanne.
He said his own squad is a “good balance” of solid experienced players and young exciting talent and he sees no reason why they can’t get a positive result against the Swiss.
Lindsay also revealed all members of his panel are fully fit and raring to go ahead of the game.
Switzerland hosted the UEFA Women’s Euros last summer where they reached the last eight. They lost 2-1 against Norway in their opening group game but then defeated Iceland 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Finland to reach the quarter-finals.
In the last eight they came up against eventual finalists Spain. They held out for 66 minutes but eventually lost by two goals to nil.
Since then they have played four friendlies. They defeated Canada at home and Scotland away back in October, then narrowly lost to Belgium at home in November before losing against Wales away in December.
Northern Ireland were last in action back in October when they lost out to Iceland in a two-legged UEFA Women’s Nations League play-off.
RB Leipzig’s Elvira Herzog and Chelsea’s Livia Peng will be vying for Switzerland’s number one shirt tonight, while Aston Villa’s Noelle Maritz (137 caps, two goals) and Strasbourg’s Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic (176 caps, 74 goals) will likely feature in the backline along with Juventus defender Viola Calligaris (74 caps, eight goals) and perhaps Freiburg’s Julia Stierli (55 caps, one goal).
Young Manchester City striker Iman Beney (19 caps, two goals) and Liverpool forward Aurelie Csillag (12 caps, one goal) could feature in their attack, although their main goal threat is Eintracht Frankfurt’s Geraldine Reuteler, who usually operates as an attacking midfielder. Reuteler has scored 15 times for her country in 85 appearances.
The only other player in double figures for goals is Basel midfielder Coumba Sow (14 goals, 58 appearances), although Leicester City attacker Alisha Lehmann has nine in 64 appearances. Experienced Juventus midfielder Lia Walti (134 caps) has notched five goals, while PSV Eindhoven’s Riola Xhemaili has netted seven times in 38 games.
Barcelona midfielder Sydney Schertenleib (21 caps, four goals) and West Ham United striker Leila Wandeler (seven caps) are among the up and coming stars for the Swiss.
Northern Ireland, second seeds in the group, are set to face the Swiss, Turkiye and Malta in stage one of the European qualifiers for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 in Brazil.
Lindsay’s stint as interim boss also includes the qualifier against third seeds Turkiye on Saturday (7 March). That game is being staged at Mourneview Park in Lurgan (7pm). Tickets are available at irishfa.com/tickets.
Both games are being shown live on the BBC iPlayer and on the BBC Sport NI website and app.
