“The stadium was silent for a long time.” If he had wanted to brush the German public in the wrong direction, Julian Nagelsmann would not have released such a barb towards the tens of thousands of Mannschaft fans present in Frankfurt on Sunday. But the coach did not hesitate to do so. Is this the greatest victory for the Swiss team, despite the draw conceded in the 92nd minute? Because indeed: for more than an hour, Deutsche Bank Park, extinguished by Switzerland, did not give the slightest hint of energy to its national team.
For the national harmony of the host country, everything fortunately worked out in stoppage time, when Niclas Füllkrug’s header deceived Yann Sommer (1-1). “It’s disappointing not to have lasted until the end, of course. But all in all, a lot of German pressure had to be resisted. So I am satisfied with this result,” Murat Yakin preferred to rejoice.
As he has become accustomed to, at the Euro even more than usual, the Swiss coach surprised everyone by starting Fabian Rieder on the left of the attack. “Ruben Vargas (editor’s note: came on in the 65th minute) should have started, but he did not finish Saturday’s practice. A match like this requires all the energy possible. So I thought of Fabian, who works very well in both directions of the field.
Here is the Swiss team partly fixed on its fate. She knows she will see the round of 16. She knows that it will be Saturday (6 p.m.) in Berlin. She also knows that it will be without Silvan Widmer, suspended. “With Leonidas Stergiou, we have someone to replace him. And we’re going to prepare Leo so he’s ready for this mission. If a player has to miss a match, the group is constructed in such a way that we have a replacement,” Murat Yakin insisted, in anticipation of potential future criticism of the absence of professional full-backs in his list.
What Switzerland and its coach do not know, however, is the opponent they will face for a place in the quarter-finals. “We will have to look into the various eventualities that await us. But one thing is certain: our adversary will also have to look into our case.”
