Norway came back from a goal down to beat hosts Switzerland 2-1 in their opening match of the Women's Euro 2025 football tournament on Wednesday night.

Switzerland, who had started brightly in front of a energetic St. Jakob-Park crowd, had led at half-time through Nadine Riesen's 28th minute strike which went in off the post.

But Norway, World Cup winners in 1995, scored twice in five minutes to deny the Swiss a fairytale start in their home tournament.

Norwegian star striker Ada Hegerberg headed in from a corner after 54 minutes, before a Julia Stierli own goal five minutes later completed the turn around.

Earlier on Wednesday, fellow Group A teams Iceland and Finland opened the competition in the town of Thun, with the Finns running out 1-0 winners thanks to a 70th minute Katariina Kosola effort.

Sixteen teams are competing across eight cities — Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lucerne, Sion, St. Gallen, Thun and Zurich — in the month-long championship, which runs until July 27.

The final will be on July 27 at St. Jakob-Park, Switzerland's largest stadium, in Basel.

Who are the favorites?

World Cup finalists Spain and England are widely seen as two of the top contenders for the crown.

England's Lionesses are the defending champions, having won the nation's first major title since the men's team lifted the World Cup in 1966.

Their historic Euros victory came in 2022 after the tournament was postponed due to the pandemic. They went on to reach the 2023 World Cup final but fell short against Spain.

Germany, another powerhouse, will be aiming to reclaim dominance. After losing to England in extra time in the 2022 final, Germany will look to add to its remarkable record of six consecutive Euros titles from 1995 to 2013.

The German women's team has won eight of the 13 European finals in total and holds two World Cup trophies as well.

Record number of women coaches

Women now lead seven of the 16 teams competing at Euro 2025 — that's 43.75% — a sharp rise from just 18.75% at Euro 2013. The proportion nearly doubled by 2017 and has steadily improved since, with 37.5% at the 2022 tournament.

Despite the advances, male coaches still have a slight numerical advantage at this year's Euros.

Success has not been an obstacle for women in the top jobs. Between 2000 and the 2023 Women's World Cup, every major international women's football tournament — World Cup, Euros and the Olympics — was won by a female-coached team, except for Japan's 2011 World Cup victory under Norio Sasaki, the lone male coach to break the trend.

Football chiefs relax rules amid heat wave

The tournament began as Europe baked under a so-called "heat dome," amid record temperatures across the continent and hot weather warnings in place for many areas.

UEFA has relaxed stadium security rules so fans can bring in half-liter water bottles amid a heat wave hitting parts of Switzerland with temperatures reaching around 35 degrees Celsius (95° Fahrenheit). Cooling breaks may be used if needed during the games.

Edited by Jenipher Camino Gonzalez