SWITZERLAND CAPTAIN: STEPH AN LICHTSTEINER M AN AGER: VL ADIMIR PE TKOVIC NICKN AME: “SCHWEIZER N ATI”/”L A N ATI” (“THE N ATION AL TEAM”) FIFA RANK: 6 HOW THEY QUALIFIED: SECOND IN EUROPEAN GROUP B BEHIND PORTUGAL, THEN PL AY-OFF WIN AGAINST NORTHERN IREL AND PREFERRED SYSTEM: 4-5-1 STAR PL AYER: XHERDAN SH AQIRI (STOKE CIT Y) ONE TO WATCH: DENIS Z AKARI A (BORUSSI A MÖNCHENGL ADBACH)
People in Switzerland expect their team to reach major finals these days so there was no euphoria when the place in Russia was booked. The expectation is for Vladimir Petkovic’s squad to reach at least the last 16. “My team has a got an excellent team spirit and have a tremendous will to succeed,” says Petkovic. Granit Xhaka is at the heart, dictating the pace of the game. With creative and quick players such as Xherdan Shaqiri and Steven Zuber, Switzerland are always capable of creating something on the flanks, especially as the wingers have strong full-backs behind them in Juventus’s Stephan Lichtsteiner, right, and Milan’s Ricardo Rodríguez, left. With Fabian Schär and young Manuel Akanji there is also a solid central defence to lean on. The weakest part of the team is the centre-forward position, which is almost always occupied by Haris Seferovic.
offs with a 1-0 aggregate win thanks to Ricardo Rodriguez’s first-leg penalty. The award of that spot-kick was furiously contested, too: it was given for handball by the home side’s Corry Evans when the ball had in fact struck his shoulder. In fairness, Switzerland had ranked highest of the nine second-placed sides in the group stage and were almost unstoppable in the group stage. They entered their final Group B match, in Portugal, with a 100 percent record and had caught the European champions cold with a 2-0 home win early on. But Portugal won all their subsequent games in an otherwise weak group, meaning Switzerland would have to settle for the playoffs if they lost in Lisbon. The Euro 2016 champions avenged that earlier two-goal defeat and progressed, fortunately Switzerland followed them even if it took a slice of luck.
ROAD TO RUSSI A
The flanks are Switzerland’s most obvious strong point. Serie A pair Stephan Lichtsteiner (the captain) and Rodriguez are both outstanding
It ended up being the tightest of squeezes for Switzerland, who edged past Northern Ireland in the play-
STRENGTH
