Swiss Heroine Riola Xhemaili AimingTo Knock Man United Out Of Europe

TOPSHOT – Switzerland’s midfielder #07 Riola Xhemaili celebrates at the end of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 Group A football match between Finland and Switzerland at the Stade de Geneve in Geneva, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

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The player who scored perhaps the most important goal in the Swiss women’s team’s history now believes PSV can shock Manchester United and knock them out of Europe this week.

Last month, Riola Xhemaili was brought on as a late substitute by UEFA Women’s Euro hosts Switzerland in their decisive final group stage match against Finland in Geneva. Trailing by a single goal, the Swiss were seconds away from becoming the first host nation to fail to qualify for the knockout stages in 20 years.

Deep into stoppage time, the 22-year-old adeptly steered in a driven cross from the right and altered the course of her country’s fortunes. As a result of the goal, Switzerland qualified for the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time ever and it ensured that local interest in the competition was sustained. Ultimately, the tournament broke the attendance records of the previous edition in England three years earlier.

Unsurprisingly, Xhemaili told me that goal was the best moment of her career to date. “You have a home Euro, a sold-out stadium, scoring for your country to bring them into the quarter-final – it’s something that just happens once. I was running to my family, I saw them and I was just really, really happy. It was kind of like a movie, I would say, a really good movie.”

This week, Xhemaili’s club side PSV begin their attempt to reach the new 18-team League Phase of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. To do that, they will have to come through two rounds of qualifying. In the first of those, they have been drawn into a four team mini-league with Manchester United and the winners of the tie between Hammarby and Metalist Kharkiv.

Manchester United are still searching for their first-ever win in European competition after losing over two legs to Paris Saint-German in the qualifying rounds two years ago. For the team losing on Wednesday, there is the double jeopardy of not only going out of the Champions League but failing to drop into the new women’s Europa Cup and therefore going out of Europe altogether.

Xhemaili grew up idolising former Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo. He is the reason she wears the number 7 shirt and she has mimicked his goal celebration when scoring for PSV. “In the Premier League, I was always a big fan of Manchester United at that time when Cristiano Ronaldo was there. When he left I was also not any more for them.”

In 2023, Xhemaili signed for German giants, VfL Wolfsburg, extending her contract until 2027 last summer. However, a lack of game time at the German club meant she elected to go out on loan to PSV to play matches ahead of the UEFA Women’s Euro to ensure her selection in the Switzerland squad.

Xhemaili scored ten times in the Eredivisie for PSV last season as they finished second to champions FC Twente on goal difference. Such was her success that PSV have now signed her on a permanent contract until June 2028. Nevertheless, she tells me that she had no regrets about her decision to join Wolfsburg.

“It’s always hard to say no to big clubs like Wolfbsurg. I went there quite young, I had some playing minutes, but not enough. That season, we didn’t even play in the Champions League (group stage). Also with the playing style, it’s not like I fitted in. It didn’t work out there.”

“Still, I wouldn’t say it was the wrong move because I learned so much there on how to train at a high-intensity, also how professional it was. At a big club like Wolfsburg, you can always learn but of course you always want to play as a footballer.”

Another former Wolfsburg player joined Xhemaili at PSV in January, the Dutch striker Fenna Kalma. In 2022, Kalma was the highest-scoring female player in the world but her career stalled in Germany. Playing again in the Dutch Eredivisie, Kalma has been revitalised, scoring 11 times in 15 games, but she is likely to miss this week’s game through injury.

Xhemaili also played alongside current Manchester United midfielder Dominique Janssen at Wolfsburg. The two are likely to come into direct opposition during the game on Wednesday. “She was a really good friend of mine. I look forward to see her next week.”

“She really helped me when I was at Wolfsburg because I was there as a young player. She was a really nice person to talk to, if I had a problem or didn’t have easy moments. She’s a really good character and a leader obviously, Also a hard opponent. I’m in the number ‘10’ position, she is in the ‘6’ so we will face each other, that’s also really quite funny and nice.”

Xhemaili is one of many members of the current Swiss squad to have parents born outside the country, in her case Kosovo. She speaks Albanian and visits Kosovo regularly. Both her father and uncles played the game but Xhemaili initially excelled at volleyball before her skills with the ball at her feet were spotted by FC Basel.

There she was the only girl in a boys team, playing alongside her twin brother Rion. Such was her ability, she was even elected to captain the boys U15 team. At the same age, she made her debut in the national women’s league and not looked back. She hopes her journey can be an inspiration to other girls in Switzerland with immigrant backgrounds.

“It’s not easy to always be accepted because you don’t look 100% Swiss, you don’t have a Swiss name. In the Switzerland team, we had a lot of players from different backgrounds, that was not a problem. In the team we had a good team spirit, we felt like a family.”

“For us, it’s even nicer that, people have different backgrounds and everyone can talk about this. We also have the freedom in Switzerland that everyone can really discuss this and they don’t get judged that much. Obviously five or six years ago, it was different but now it’s becoming normal. It’s important that you talk about it and you make it easier for the next generation.”