Switzerland is relegated to League B of the Nations League. To hope to stay alive, she had to win against Serbia on Friday in Zurich. Except that the victory that the national team hoped to hold was shattered in the 88th minute, when Aleksa Terzic scored the 1-1 which changed everything.
It hurt, because Switzerland had pushed, after the 1-0 that Amdouni had finally scored in the 79th minute, when a cross from Rodriguez was delivered by Freuler for the Benfica striker who found the fault of the entrance to the surface. Amdouni had the opportunity to make it 2-0 straight away, but he missed the target. Just after, it was Joël Monteiro who hit the post.
Amdouni’s goal
SRF
But when, after a poorly played corner, Serbia was able to go on the counter-attack and serve Terzic, the efforts of the previous minutes no longer had any value. This simply marked the fifth match without a victory in as many Nations League games this fall. Not glorious.
Kobel saves a penalty
It’s probably quite comfortable to find excuses – refereeing, injuries, etc. – but it’s a little more effective to play. At least on Friday Switzerland tried to play. We don’t really know what she set out to do, but the fact that she tried to do it and created her chances.
It was not always smooth, but we must note that Edimilson Fernandes put Petrovic to work with a heavy strike from the left (12th) and, above all, that Noah Okafor found a way to miss the target at half-time. hour of play: the AC Milan winger took a powerful cross from Fernandes at close range, but the ball bounced off his thigh, then his chest before hitting the top of the bar. And what about this “penalty” seven meters from Zeki Amdouni, far too low and centered to facilitate Petrovic’s task (59th). Fortunately, the same Amdouni had caught up afterwards, but in the final count, it weighs.
The unmissable Amdouni.
SRF
And we must not lose sight of the fact that the national team had a bit of luck to stay alive earlier in the match, when Gregor Kobel saved a penalty well missed by Aleksandar Mitrovic (54th). But that’s not a goal.
So, on Monday, Switzerland will go to Spain to finish this Nations League campaign. For butter. And she will have to forget it very quickly. Because nothing will have been worthy of a quarter-finalist of the last Euro.