An ideal scenario
Scoring on their first opportunity: this was the ideal scenario written by the Swiss team during the first period. Unhappy at the conclusion four days earlier against Scotland, Dan Ndoye made the right gesture this time on a serve from Remo Freuler to leave Manuel Neuer no chance.
At the origin of this action, Fabian Rieder justified the trust placed by Murat Yakin. It required, in fact, a certain audacity to line up from the start against the “Mannschaft” a man who had only started… twice this season in Ligue 1 with Rennes. The other change made by Murat Yakin compared to Wednesday’s match was logically towards Breel Embolo, preferred to Xherdan Shaqiri at the forefront of the attack.
The Germans could, however, have had it briny when they returned from the locker room. They thought they had opened the scoring in the 17th minute on a shot from Robert Andrich that Yann Sommer had let slip away in a very culpable manner. However, the VAR had to cancel this goal for a prior foul by Jamal Musiala on Michel Aebischer. Murat Yakin could breathe. His team was not leading, and the video refereeing had spared him a debate on No. 1 between Sommer and Gregor Kobel which would have fueled all the newspapers before the round of 16.
Two world class players
At the restart, Julian Nagelsmann maintained his confidence in his starting lineup which was lacking in too much central play. The Germans constantly sought to pass through the center, where Switzerland has two world-class players. We are of course talking about Manuel Akanji, author of a magnificent comeback on Kai Havertz in the 58th, and Granit Xhaka.
In the 65th minute, Murat Yakin made another strong choice. He launched Kwadwo Duah, Zeki Amdouni and Ruben Vargas for Embolo, Ndoye and Rieder. However, he left the three men on the field under threat of suspension in the event of a yellow card, namely Ricardo Rodriguez, Silvan Widmer and Remo Freuler.
The risk did not pay off since Widmer, booked in the 81st minute, will watch the round of 16 from the stands. If it’s not poker, it’s with the nerves of the fans of the Swiss team that the coach takes great pleasure in playing…
Switzerland therefore finishes 2nd in group A and will face the 2nd in group B on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in Berlin. /ats-sbr-dd
