Without points at the bottom of the table – Weak national team performance: Serbia beat Switzerland 2-0 – Sport

• The Swiss national team lost 2-0 to Serbia in the Nations League after a weak performance.
• Nico Elvedi scored an own goal shortly before half-time, Aleksandar Mitrovic (61′) made the decision.
• Murat Yakin’s team is still at the bottom of the table with no points after 3 games.

A scene in the 72nd minute was symptomatic of the unsuccessful Swiss performance. After a shove in the back from Dan Ndoye, referee Simone Sozza immediately pointed to the spot when the score was 0-2 and the Swiss fans who had traveled with him once again hoped for a turnaround. Breel Embolo went for the penalty, but his poorly taken and unplaced attempt was missed by Predrag Rajkovic in the Serbian goal.

Just 4 minutes later, the Swiss center forward was unfortunate again when he blocked a header from his substitute teammate Andi Zeqiri. As a result, Switzerland was no longer able to react to the deficit and, as in the last edition, is without a point after 3 games in the Nations League.

Slow start from the Serbs

In the starting phase, there wasn’t much that pointed to Serbian success. The home team was surprisingly passive and allowed the Swiss to play far into their own half of the pitch. However, the national team didn’t know what to do with the possession of over 80% of the ball in the starting quarter of an hour and didn’t have any real chances to score.

As the game progressed, the home team also appeared to be more on the offensive. In front of 8,000 fans in Leskovac, Strahinja Pavlovic and Veljko Birmancevic in particular caused danger on the left wing. This paid off in stoppage time in the first half. After a foul against Pavlovic, Lazar Samardzic took the free kick into the center, where Nico Elvedi directed the slightly deflected cross into his own goal.

Embolo’s equalizer disallowed

The best Swiss chance before the break belonged to Embolo. The 27-year-old pushed the ball past the left post from 11 meters in the 32nd minute after great work from Zeki Amdouni and Silvan Widmer. Otherwise, the Swiss remained pale in the danger zone despite their field superiority for long stretches.

After the break, Switzerland did not appear to be any more alert and Gregor Kobel had to intervene again less than 2 minutes after the restart. Manuel Akanji was the last man to lose the ball, but the Swiss goalie saved the national team from 0-2 thanks to a save against Luka Jovic, who was substituted at halftime.

7 turns of the hand later, the Swiss were happy about the equalizer, but the celebration quickly died down. Embolo scored after a parried Ndoye shot. However, the Bologna wing was just offside when the cross was passed.

Mitrovic with the decision

Aleksandar Mitrovic made the decision on the other side in the 61st minute. The 30-year-old ran a ball down the sideline, moved into the center and hit the right angle in a remarkable way. Akanji only accompanied the Serbian striker.

Thanks to the threesome, the Serbs left Switzerland 4 points behind and secured third place in the table. In the top game of the group, Spain beat Denmark 1-0 and took over the lead from the Scandinavians. Martin Zubimendi scored the only goal in Murcia in the 79th minute.

This is how it continues

The Swiss national team will continue on Tuesday. Murat Yakin’s team, which urgently needs points, welcomes the Danes in St. Gallen and wants to take revenge for the 0-2 defeat a month ago. Serbia, on the other hand, is visiting Spain at the same time and wants to take points from the European champions, as they did in the 0-0 draw in the first leg.