Soccer Football - UEFA Women's Euro 2025 - Group B - Belgium v Italy - Stade de Tourbillon, Sion, Switzerland - July 3, 2025 Italy's Manuela Giugliano during the warm up before the match REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw/File Photo
GENEVA (Reuters) -Italy are back in the knockout rounds of the Women's European Championship for the first time in 12 years, and midfielder Manuela Giugliano chalked it up to an energy in the team that she had not felt before.
Le Azzurre face Norway on Wednesday in Geneva in the first quarter-final of Euro 2025 and they are in for a stiff challenge against a Norwegian side that cruised into the knockouts after winning all three of their group-stage games. Italy won just one of theirs.
That could not erase the smile from Giugliano's face on Tuesday, as she told reporters the team's confidence was high.
"I've been feeling this since the first day, we had a retreat, we tried to create a positive energy, an energy that I could not feel in the past," the 27-year-old told a press conference.
"This is an additional weapon for this group, and you bring this weapon on the pitch, it allows you to run more. And so this is the motivation and awareness we have today. Our group is a beautiful group, is a positive group, and we're all united to achieve the same goal."
The Italians were once regular contenders at European Championships, finishing no worse than fourth in six of the first seven editions of Europe's elite women's tournament.
Since 2001 however, they have only advanced out of the group stage in two of their six appearances, and not since 2013.
Coach Andrea Soncin said he had received numerous congratulatory messages about how the team has looked in Switzerland, and agreed with Giugliano that the squad's chemistry has made a difference.
"There is the emotional aspect, that magic that they and us and we manage together, with all the staff managed to create," said Soncin, who shed tears of joy when Italy booked their knockout round berth. "When all the elements combine, there is a magical moment."
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Oberentfelden, Switzerland;Editing by Toby Davis)
