Spain were made to work and missed two penalties – but eventually broke down the resistance of hosts Switzerland as the Euro 2025 favourites won 2-0 to advance into the semi-finals.

Second-half goals from Athenea del Castillo and Claudia Pina were enough to book Spain’s progress in the face of a vocal home crowd, but it was hard going at times.

With Switzerland playing in their first tournament quarter-final against a side who scored 14 goals in their three group games, it looked like a mismatch of a last-eight clash on paper – but Spain were frustrated for over an hour due to a wasteful performance in Bern.

The world champions had a golden chance to break the deadlock early on when Mariona Caldentey was brought down by Nadine Riesen for a stonewall penalty.

But Women’s Super League Player of the Season Caldentey may have paid too close attention to England’s chaotic penalty shoot-out with Sweden as her spot-kick trickled shockingly wide, adding more confidence to the Swiss effort.

Despite Spain holding possession, Switzerland kept their opponents at bay – until the woodwork started coming to the rescue. Before half-time, Irene Paredes crashed the post from a corner, and second-half efforts from Patri Guijarro and Esther Gonzalez met the same fate from further set-pieces.

As Switzerland tested Cata Coll for the first time through Alayah Pilgrim’s shot on the break, Spain knew something had to change – and the introduction of Del Castillo did the trick.

Within minutes of coming on, the Spain No 10 had opened the scoring. An intricate Spanish move saw the forward latch on to Aitana Bonmati’s flick in the penalty area and she squeezed an effort past Swiss goalkeeper Livia Peng.

Six minutes later, the tie was done. Lia Walti – who celebrated a Champions League final win with Arsenal against many of these Barcelona-based Spain players two months ago – gave the ball away under pressure from Guijarro and as she called foul, Spain called time on the contest.

Pina picked up the loose ball in space and she curled a trademark finish from 20 yards into the top corner.

Spain thought they were set for a third goal when Del Castillo was caught late by Iman Beney in the box, but incredibly Alexia Putellas – one of the players of the tournament so far – saw her penalty kept out by a stunning Peng parry.

It now means out of the 25 penalty attempts – including in shoot-outs – 13 have not resulted in goals.

And despite some late hope for the Swiss after that penalty miss, they were then reduced to 10 players as Aston Villa’s Noelle Maritz was dismissed for a late professional foul on Salma Paralluelo.

That was that for Switzerland, who still managed to inspire a generation of fans in their country – the attendance of 78,407 was a record for a Women’s Euros quarter-final.

For Spain, it’s a mouth-watering semi-final against one of France or Germany next week.

How the Euros quarter-finals stand

All kick-offs at 8pm BST

July 16
QF1: Norway 1-2 Italy

July 17
QF3: Sweden 2-2 England (2-3 pens)

July 18
QF2: Spain 2-0 Switzerland

July 19
QF4: France vs Germany (Basel)

What’s the Euro 2025 semi-final line-up?

All kick-offs at 8pm BST

July 22
SF1: England vs Italy (Geneva)

July 23
SF2: France/Germany vs Spain (Zurich)