Euro 2025: Norway overcomes Finland with Graham Hansen's late goal to win Group A

SION, Switzerland (AP) — Norway winger Caroline Graham Hansen showed Sunday why she was second in the Ballon d'Or vote last year to her superstar Barcelona teammate Aitana Bonmatí.

Graham Hansen lifted Norway into the quarterfinals of the Women's European Championships with a decisive late goal in a 2-1 win over an impressive Finland which deserved more.

It meant Norway became the first team in the knockout rounds as the winner of Group A after host Switzerland beat Iceland 2-0 in the later game Sunday.

In the 84th minute of a tied game, there seemed little danger when Graham Hansen got the ball tight on the right wing marked by two Finland opponents 40 meters (yards) from goal.

She dribbled past both players detailed to stop her, darted into the penalty area, met two more defenders, deceived them and created space to float a deft chip that went into the net off the far post.

Maybe it was a cross aimed for Norway captain Ada Hegerberg but it still looked great. Hegerberg, a Ballon d’Or winner, put her hands to her head as if in disbelief at what Graham Hansen had done.

“It was a half-shot, half-cross,” Graham Hansen acknowledged. “If it wasn’t going in, it was going to Ada. You have to make something happen out of nothing."

Just three minutes earlier, she had missed a much easier chance to win the game by scooping a shot over the bar when having almost too much time to think and pick her spot.

“You maybe feel like that was the chance that could have secured the victory,” Graham Hansen said. “But you can't stay in the past.”

It left Finland coach Marko Saloranta praising “a world-class player, among the top three players in the world in my opinion.”

It gave Norway a second 2-1 win at Euro 2025 after being outshined for much of the game. Norway had opened Wednesday with a come-from-behind win over Switzerland which had dominated the first half.

“This result was brutal after the performance,” Saloranta said in translated comments. “We really should have won this match.”

Norway now sits atop Group A with six points. Finland is on three, from its opening-day 1-0 win over Iceland, and Switzerland also has three points.

Switzerland plays Finland in the final round of Group A games on Thursday. Norway holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over either team if they end tied on six points. Iceland was eliminated Sunday ahead of playing Norway in its last game.

Norway has been severely tested at Euro 2025 yet will be in the quarterfinals — likely avoiding Spain.

“It's the quality of a good team that we find a way to win,” Norway coach Gemma Grainger said, noting her side could have been three goals ahead before Finland stepped up.

Norway led in the third minute when Graham Hansen had forced an own-goal from Finland defender Eva Nyström after excellent play on the right wing.

Oona Sevenius deservedly leveled for Finland in the 32nd, showing fine balance to direct a rising left-foot shot from 16 yards (meters). Norway was again robbed of the ball in its own half by effective pressing.

For all its tidy play, Finland was lucky not to go two goals down. Norway struck the crossbar and a post from back-to-back corners, then Hegerberg was denied by goalkeeper Anna Koivunen’s brave blocking save.

Finland dominated play midway through the second half and forced Norway goalkeeper Cecilie Fiskerstrand into diving saves from shots by Katariina Kosola and Eveliina Sumannen, whose effort was tipped on to a post.

Norway will go to Geneva on July 16 to play the first quarterfinal against the runner-up in Spain’s Group B. Either Switzerland or Finland will play the Group B winner — likely Spain — in Bern on July 18.

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Finland goalkeeper Anna Koivunen, at left, and teammate Nea Lehtola, at right, fail to stop a goal from Norway's Caroline Graham during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland at Stade de Tourbillon in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The players watch the ball as Norway's Caroline Graham, background right, scores her side's second goal during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland at Stade de Tourbillon in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Finland fans stand during the national anthem before the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland at Stade de Tourbillon in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Norway's Ingrid Engen, center, tries to score past Finland goalkeeper Anna Koivunen during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland at Stade de Tourbillon in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Norway's Vilde Boe Risa, top, and Norway's Frida Maanum, bottom, celebrate after Finland's Eva Nystrom scored an own goal during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

Finland's Oona Sevenius, right, celebrates with Finland's head coach Marko Saloranta, left, after scoring her side's first goal during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

Norway's Caroline Graham, left, celebrates with Ada Hegerberg after scoring her side's second goal during the Euro 2025, group A, soccer match between Norway and Finland at Stade de Tourbillon in Sion, Switzerland, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House, calling it a national security priority while repeating false claims about the strategic Arctic island.

In recent comments, he has floated using military force as an option to take control of Greenland. He has said if the U.S. does not acquire the island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, then it will fall into Chinese or Russian hands.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

TRUMP, discussing the security situation in the Arctic: “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t."

THE FACTS: Experts have repeatedly rebuffed Trump's claims of Chinese and Russian military forces lurking off Greenland's coastline. Experts say Russia instead operates in the Barents Sea, off the Scandinavian coast, and both China and Russia have a presence in the Bering Sea south of Alaska.

“That statement makes no sense in terms of facts,” said Andreas Østhagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, Norway. “There are no Russian and Chinese ships all over the place around Greenland. Russia and/or China has no capacity to occupy Greenland or to take control over Greenland.”

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told The Associated Press in Greenland's capital Nuuk. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships. Another Greenlander, Hans Nørgaard, told AP that Trump's claims are “fantasy.”

Lin Mortensgaard, an expert on the international politics of the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said that while there are probably Russian submarines — as there are across the vast Arctic region — near Greenland, there are no surface vessels.

China has research vessels in the Central Arctic Ocean, and while the Chinese and Russian militaries have done joint exercises in the Arctic, they have taken place closer to Alaska, she said.

Asked about Trump’s claim that there are multiple Chinese and Russian ships and submarines around the island, Greenland business minister Naaja Nathanielsen responded Tuesday: "Not that we are aware of."

While Russia and China have an interest in the Arctic, “we don’t detect an actual threat," she said.

“America is still recognized as quite a big superpower,” Nathanielsen added, “and I don’t see any appetite from Russia or China to destabilize this.”

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TRUMP, discussing Denmark's defenses in Greenland: "You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds."

THE FACTS: The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is stationed in Greenland.

It's a key part of the Danish military infrastructure in the inhospitable Arctic terrain, experts say.

“Remember, transportation of the area is either by sea or by air. There are no highways,” said Steven Lamy, an international relations professor and Arctic security expert at the University of Southern California. “You can't basically get in a car or a Bradley vehicle or tank or anything and go up there. So they have dog sleds.”

In addition to these special elite forces, Denmark has several surface patrol ships and surveillance aircraft and the kingdom is moving to further strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. Last year, the government announced a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”

The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk, the capital, and tasked with the “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

The U.S. Department of Defense also operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

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TRUMP, discussing why Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom: “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”

THE FACTS: The first humans arrived in northern Greenland circa 2,500 B.C., traveling from what is now Canada after the narrow strait separating the island from North America froze over. The Norse explorer Erik the Red arrived circa A.D. 985 with a fleet of Viking ships, according to the medieval Icelandic sagas.

In 1721, Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrived in Greenland and ultimately began efforts to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity, marking the start of Denmark’s modern colonization of Greenland, which formally became a Danish colony in 1814. The U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland more than a century later.

“It’s the same logic about the U.S. and sovereignty, right? You have a couple of boats arriving from Europe and now you own the United States of America,” said Østhagen, of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. “The Indigenous population was there before you guys."

In 2009, Greenland became a self-governing country within the Danish kingdom. The island has a right to independence when requested by local voters.

International law has developed over the centuries, pivoting from land-grabbing colonial powers to modern-day treaties honoring borders largely developed after World War II.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher and Arctic security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said postwar it has remained important, especially to the U.S., for countries to refrain from exerting power over other territories.

“We shouldn’t just grab and go to war,” he said. “Rather, it should be peoples who have their self-determination.”

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Zhang reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

FILE - Coloured houses covered by snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)

Pituffik Space Base is pictured as Vice President JD Vance visits, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Greenland. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)

Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)