Switzerland will play in the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Murat Yakin’s selection won 3-2 ahead of Serbia and finished in 2nd place in Group G behind Brazil, beaten 1-0 by Cameroon, due to a lower goal difference.
With Gregor Kobel and Fabian Schär for Yann Sommer and Nico Elvedi, both on the flank due to a much more severe cold snap than announced, Switzerland had a somewhat… confusing first period. Two golden chances for Breel Embolo and Granit Xhaka while we were still playing the first thirty seconds of the match, an opener by Xherdan Shaqiri in the 20th, then the black hole.
Shaqiri’s joy after opening the scoring. [Imago]
In the space of 9 minutes, Serbia was able to reverse the course of the game thanks to the complicity of Remo Freuler and Shaqiri. The Zurich player lost the ball on Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 1-1 in the 26th minute before lacking determination on Dusan Vlahovic’s 2-1 in the 35th minute. It was a bad pass from Shaqiri that allowed the Serbs to cause the imbalance on this action. Switzerland had the immense merit of not panicking. She resolutely took control of the match against an opponent whose defensive limits she had, it is true, very quickly identified.
In the 44th, Shaqiri sounded the charge for the 2-2 of great beauty: a breakthrough in the axis to give Djibril Sow who shifted Silvan Widmer whose perfect cross found Embolo. She brought new proof of this almost unsuspected drive. Shaqiri, still him, still him, found Ruben Vargas for a light deflection which allowed Freuler to register the 3-2. And to erase his two fatal errors of the first period. Diabolical on his right flank, Xherdan Shaqiri signed a new XXL performance. Only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo found the net like him during the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups…
ats/lper
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