The DadLadTour (Now Actually In Switzerland)

Day 2 (Part 4) – Genève. Stadium shenanigans.

The Match – The hosts Switzerland take on the Finns

10^th July 2025

Like I did last night at the England match, I make my way down to the front. Two women, bedecked in a Finland shirts, are securing a banner to the wall. This banner is ginormous – it must be fifty feet long at least. Each end is tied with ropes to metal fixings that form part of the wall. Due to its great size, however, their banner sags all across its length. But the Finns have come prepared for such an eventuality – I suspect they are not new to this flag hanging malarkey – and have brought rolls of gaffer tape that they use to take up the slack.

There is just enough space to place my teeny-tiny five-by-three flag next to it. Our effort is ridiculously small in comparison with this Finnish monster but I am pleased to hang it. And I’ve got it close to the corner flag so it may get seen when the TV cameras pan that way.

UEFA accredited photographers are positioned all along the digital hoarding that separate the pitch from the stands where our flag hangs. I use my thumbs and forefingers to make the internationally recognised “Can you take a picture on my phone, please?” gesture. The snapper isn’t keen but, by repeating the mime actions, I persuade him. He takes my phone. I pose behind the DadLadTour flag and he does the honours. To be fair to him, he does a good job; I can see a future in photography for this chap.

When travelling to Stade de Genève, we didn’t see any shirts other than variations on the Switzerland and Finland kits. Nor did we spot any at the match. No other national, or club, shirt was witnessed by the DadLadTour team. We may have been the only England fans in attendance. Fans of other nations may, like we did, have chosen to wear Swiss or Finnish kits tonight. But I like to think we were the only Lioness fans in attendance – though I’m sure we couldn’t have been.

Suddenly a man appears at the goal nearest to us. He climbs up a pair of Werner fibreglass stepladders – I know they are Werner steps because I have a pair just like them – and begins fiddling with something. I realise he is adjusting, maybe even changing, the camera that hangs in the back corner of the net and catches all the action from inside the goalmouth. Hurry up, mate, I think. It’s less than fifteen to kick-off.

Whatever Ladder-Man has been instructed to do, he succeeds and is soon carrying the Werner’s away with him. Just in time for the match to start.

It’s an enthralling game between two evenly matched sides. Switzerland – in my view – are slightly the better team in the first forty-five, although Finland make them work hard for this perceived superiority.

The Swiss girls need only a draw and they are into the quarters. They seem undecided whether to press home their slight advantage and try for all three points or to sit back, defend when needed, and see out a nil-nil.

Chances come for both sides and the ‘keepers rescue their respective teams on several occasions.

The match is compelling. Good football, good saves, good tackling…it’s all good stuff. Especially for neutrals like Liam and I who, despite nominally siding with the hosts, are just pleased to witness a close match.

We don’t sit in our seats. We try but what’s the point? The game ebbs and flows. The crowd follow the action and rise to their feet in response to events on the pitch. Backsides return to plastic seats only briefly before leaping up moments later. We give up sitting in favour of standing. It’s easier on the knees and, besides, there is no-one behind us that we would be blocking.

Both sets of fans are giving their all in support of their heroines.

“Hopp schwiiz. Hopp schwiiz. Hopp schwiiz. Hopp schwiiz.” The reds bellow.

At the front of the Finland block a man wearing what is either a loud Hawaiian shirt, or the worst team shirt in history, is enthusiastically banging a drum. A woman alongside him stands facing the crowd and chants loudly. Finland fans holler in response to her lead. The drummer stops drumming and then, with sticks clenched in each fist, begins a salute aimed at the fans. He wouldn’t look out of place on an aircraft carrier directing fighter jets on take-off.

The entire block copies him. Arms reach out, slightly raised and point pitch-wards before snapping back. Out, snap. Out, snap. Out. Snap. OUT. SNAP.

The Finns keep up a constant, deafening cry.

At first, I think it is, “SU-OW-MI”. Then the chant begins to sound like, “SOR-MEAT!” Now, I was given my first pair of hearing aids just eight days earlier and I am still adjusting to them but, towards the end of the match, I swear the Finland fans were chanting, “RAW MEAT!”

“HOPP SCHWIIZ!” The reply.

Then she appears. After 72 minutes of riveting footy our pal, Nea Lehtola, comes on. Her face looks normal size in real life, not like the one metre tall mugshot I carried around parts of Genève. Shame that…she would have been a real asset in the air.

0-0 approaching the final ten. Switzerland are on course to qualify. Then, on 77 minutes, a player goes down in the box. Without hesitation the referee points. It’s happened right in front of them – in front of us – and is so clear cut. No doubt about it. PENALTY! The Finns go berserk.

Natalia Kuikka spots the ball. Pauses.

Switzerland fans jeer, Finland fans cheer.

Then sends Livia Peng the wrong way.

Amazing scenes below us. Sheer joy and jubilation. Nea faces fly through the air. Scarves twirl. It’s absolutely carnage right in front of us. It’s joyous bedlam.

“RAW MEAT!” OUT. SNAP. “ RAW MEAT!” OUT. SNAP. “RAW MEAT!”

Switzerland 0 : 1 Finland

82 minutes. Switzerland ring the changes. Alisha Lehman – ex-Villa forward – comes on. Midfielder Riola Xhemaili replaces a defender. A double change. It’s do or die for the Swiss.

Only eleven left to play before Finland are into the knockouts and the home team are heading…well…home.

90 on the clock. The ref gives seven additional minutes.

“HOPP SCHWIIZ!” The reds frantically cry.

Then….90+2.

A low cross into the box and Xhemaili stabs it home.

1-1!

Finland push again. Then, as they are about to take a throw-in and mount an attack, the referee turns and blows. Switzerland have done it. The hosts are through to the quarters.

It has been such a fabulous match. Unbelievable tension and excitement. Incredible stuff. It’s a match I am so glad we managed to see. Brilliant stuff.

Hordes of happy red shirts – and disconsolate white ones – troop out of the stadium. UEAF volunteers are on hand with signs showing where to head for different directions – station, centre. One reads, “France”, and I chuckle. Liam tells me the French border is about 15 minutes away.

We are directed down a wide road which I soon realise is a slip road to a motorway. I didn’t realise that Stade de Genève was, similarly to Elland Road, right next to a busy road network. Im not sure how far we walk but it’s along way – maybe a mile – before the cones separating fans from cars become scarcer and the traffic increases.

Thankfully, just a few yards more and we are at yet another train station.