Switzerland’s 2-0 success on Saturday evening against Italy was duly hailed in the national press the day after qualifying for the quarter-finals of Euro 2024. “Switzerland triumphs in Berlin: a feat engraved in marble,” headlines the daily The weather. “The crazy thing is that this victory is total, logical, indisputable, and that the many Swiss supporters (who had won the match from the stands) were able to enjoy it well before the final whistle. The pre-match feeling was not misleading: yes, Switzerland is really a better team than Italy now,” says Laurent Favre, from Berlin, already planning this Saturday, July 6 in Düsseldorf for a quarter final against England or Slovakia. “And based on what we saw on Saturday, Switzerland has no reason to fear either,” believes the journalist.
“Switzerland achieves its feat” headlines the front page Sunday Morningwho notes that “Switzerland has entered the big leagues.” For the Sunday newspaper, there is no doubt: “(…) with what it has shown, all dreams are allowed,” according to Daniel Visentini, who evokes “the best generation in the history of Swiss football that is writing its destiny.” Like his colleague from Tempsthe journalist projects himself further. “This Switzerland manages the feat of keeping its feet on the ground while having its head in the clouds. So, by stretching like this towards the sky of its ambitions, it delights everyone. Yakin and his people are finally on the same wavelength, everything is possible. Everything,” he writes.
In the French version of Blickthe notion of feat is downright questioned. “Because in reality, there was no feat this Saturday evening in Berlin: Switzerland qualified logically and without trembling, against an opponent that it largely dominated from start to finish”, writes Tim Guillemin, the day after Switzerland’s perfectly controlled match.
“Let’s also not forget to bow out to Murat Yakin. The man who could no longer control his group and whose players panicked at the first headwind just a few months ago has become a rock star,” recalls Robin Carrel, on lematin.ch. He will greet his audience before the match, sure of himself, certain that nothing can happen to him. Crazy, because I don’t remember seeing a coach or coach having ever done that. But it’s Murat, really. A Swiss hero.”
On the German side, too, Switzerland necessarily receives nothing but praise. Fabian Ruch, in the NZZlaunches into an ode to Remo Freuler, who scored the 1-0 just before half-time. “No one represents this team in Berlin better than Remo Freuler, the fighter and the enduring runner in the engine room, who puts himself at the service of the group, closes spaces, chases opponents, does the many little things correctly from which great things are born,” writes the journalist from the Zurich daily. The Bologna player is compared to an animated character from “Rapetou”, the gang of gangsters who aim for Scrooge McDuck’s safe. “It is perhaps no coincidence that Remo Freuler opened the safe for the Swiss,” says the pen of Fabian Ruch, who dares to compare Switzerland to Brazil: “Tonight, the Swiss were just as dominant as the Brazilians, but without any frills.”
In his commentary for the Alemannic site Blick, Christian Finkbeiner believes that Switzerland “must no longer fear anyone”. For the editorialist, “the last dance of this extraordinary generation of Swiss football should – by far – not stop there”. What if Switzerland returned to the Olympic stadium in Berlin, the scene of its coup on Saturday evening, on July 14 for the Euro 2024 final? “Why not with Switzerland? Since this “Serata magica” (editor’s note: magical evening), there are no more borders for this Nati,” enthuses the head of football at Blick Alemannic, joined by his French-speaking counterpart of the same title, Tim Guillemin: “The only question now is where the Nati will stop. And if the 6,000 supporters present tonight have a chance of seeing Berlin again on July 14… Is it too bold to think so? Obviously. But it would also have been incredibly presumptuous to imagine this Swiss team dominating Italy so much in a knockout match of a major tournament.”
