GENEVA (AP) — On a night of goals and drama for two veteran star strikers, Cristiana Girelli got the better of Ada Hegerberg to send Italy into the semifinals of the Women's European Championship on Wednesday.
Girelli's 90th-minute header, her second goal of the game, sealed a 2-1 win over Norway, whose captain Hegerberg had tied the game after missing a penalty.
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Norway's Ada Hegerberg reacts after missing a penalty shot against during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Norway's Ada Hegerberg, second from right, scores during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli (10) scores their second goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli (10) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
Italy will return to Geneva next Tuesday to face either Sweden or England for its first Women's Euros semifinal since 1997.
“It’s something magical. I felt something special since we came to Switzerland," the 35-year-old Girelli said
She had seized the lead for Italy in the 50th by deftly guiding in a shot fired across the Norway goal by Sofia Cantore.
With extra time looming, Girelli met Cantore's perfectly weighted cross with a graceful leap at the far post to direct her header just under the crossbar.
“The joy is huge. My heart is full of pride,” said Italy coach Andrea Soncin, who joined his players and staff in a euphoric post-game team photo in front of their fans who got close-up views of Girelli's goals.
Hegerberg leveled the score in the 66th with her first scoring chance just six minutes after missing a penalty kick for the second time at Euro 2025.
Hegerberg ran clear to a long pass and poked a shot past onrushing goalkeeper Laura Giuliani. The slow-rolling ball just beat the Italian defenders in a race to the goal line.
“She gets the goal after the (penalty) miss, that tells a lot about her,” Norway coach Gemma Grainger said. "It’s heartbreaking to concede so late, it taints the feeling of the game.”
Girelli now has 61 goals for Italy and the last three all went into the same net at the mountains end of the Stade de Genève stadium.
She also scored one of the goals of the tournament, curling in a 22-meter yard shot against Portugal that shaped to be decisive in the group stage until Italy conceded an 89th-minute equalizer.
"We felt at home here," Girelli said of the Swiss city with a big Italian community where the Azzurre will play a third game next week. “Maybe I could ask Juventus to play in this stadium, I'm joking.”
The Norway star has taken two penalty kicks at Euro 2025 and missed both, placing her two shots wide of each post. She also scored in each of those games and has 51 career goals for Norway.
Hegerberg won this spot-kick by falling under a grappling challenge from Italy captain Elena Linari trying to meet a high cross. Replays suggested Hegerberg might have been offside.
Taking a short and slow run to the ball, Hegerberg sent her shot wide of the left hand post of Guiliani, who guessed correctly which way to dive.
The former Ballon d'Or winner also missed when Norway led 2-1 over Switzerland, shooting to the right of Livia Peng’s dive, in an opening day win by that score.
Italy got its tactics right in the first half, with Arianna Caruso and Emma Severini breaking in space through the Norway midfield. Both tested Norway goalkeeper Cecilie Fiskerstrand with shots.
Maybe it was Italian confidence that left it vulnerable to fast breaks.
Hegerberg missed a chance alone in front of goal in the 36th. She sent the ball wide after it arrived at an awkward height because of Linari’s deflection trying to block the cross.
Norway was stronger after halftime, with four attackers on the field chasing an equalizing goal and then a decisive second.
“Our second-half performance was our best performance in the tournament,” Grainger said. ”They had one quality moment at the end."
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Norway's Ada Hegerberg reacts after missing a penalty shot against during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Norway's Ada Hegerberg, second from right, scores during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli (10) scores their second goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Italy's Cristiana Girelli (10) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal during the Women's Euro 2025 quarterfinals soccer match between Norway and Italy at Stade de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter and Lithuania's president and prime minister were taken to safe locations Wednesday because of an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus, underlining jitters on NATO's eastern flank over incursions related to Russia's war with Ukraine.
An emergency announcement from the military told people in the Vilnius region to “immediately head to a shelter or a safe place.”
The alert, which lasted for about an hour, also led to the closure of the airspace over Vilnius Airport. President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were taken to shelters, and there was also an evacuation order at Lithuania's parliament, the Seimas, the BNS news agency reported.
It was the first major alert that sent residents and political leaders in a European Union and NATO capital rushing to shelters since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Based on the parameters we saw, it’s most likely either a combat drone or a drone designed to deceive systems and lure targets,” Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center, said in a news briefing. “The electronic countermeasures here can’t tell us whether an explosive device detonated or not. It’s very, very difficult."
Based on the altitude and speed, it was probably a drone, he said, "though we can’t say at this stage exactly what kind of drone it was or where it was launched from.”
Lithuania borders Russia-allied Belarus to the east and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave to the west. Wednesday's alert came after the military said it detected drone activity in Belarus, but no drones were sighted over Lithuania.
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte commended the alliance’s reaction to several drone incidents in recent days, saying that they had been met with “a calm, decisive and proportionate response.” Rutte said: “This is exactly what we planned and prepared for,” and he blamed Russia’s war on Ukraine for the problem.
In recent months, Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory on numerous occasions. Western officials have blamed what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the drones. Russia, meanwhile, has renewed threats that it would retaliate if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries or if those countries are complicit in their use against Russia.
On Tuesday evening, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys wrote on social media that “Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace while waging smear campaigns” against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “It’s a transparent act of desperation — an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: (Ukraine) is hitting Russian military machine hard.”
Budrys' comment came hours after a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine apologized for that “unintended incident,” without specifying what had happened.
Last week, Latvia’s government collapsed following an argument over the handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine. The defense minister was forced to quit after his party withdrew its support for him, and the prime minister then resigned. The governing coalition had been under strain for months over several other issues.
In a recent escalation of aerial attacks, Russia and Ukraine have sometimes fired hundreds of drones a day at each other.
Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that it shot down 131 out of 154 drones that Russia launched overnight. The ones that got past air defenses killed three civilians and wounded 18 others, including two children, officials said.
Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its aerial campaign against Russia’s vital oil industry, with the General Staff reporting its drones struck a major Russian oil refinery and a pipeline pumping station overnight.
Russian media reports also indicated that a chemical plant in the southern Stavropol region was hit and caught fire, although local officials didn’t confirm any direct hit.
The U.K. government, a strong supporter of Ukraine's war effort, has loosened strict sanctions on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise due to the Iran war.
The waiver begins Wednesday and reflects growing supply concerns over certain fuels due to the effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.
That step comes two days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington was granting a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea, a move that is meant to reduce the oil supply shortages.
The announcement marked a continued policy reversal by the Trump administration, which had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April.
Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
People take shelter in an underground car park during an air raid alert in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Vygintas Skaraitis/Lrytas via AP)
People take shelter in an underground car park during an air raid alert in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Vygintas Skaraitis/Lrytas via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged after a Russian strike on Konotop, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
The phone shows the received message "The Lithuanian military reports: "AIR DANGER. Hurry to cover or a safe place without delay, take care of your loved ones, wait for further recommendations. We will inform you about the end of the danger in a separate message", in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
The phone shows the received message "The Lithuanian military reports: "AIR DANGER. Hurry to cover or a safe place without delay, take care of your loved ones, wait for further recommendations. We will inform you about the end of the danger in a separate message", in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
