DAfter a thrilling game, especially in the first half, Switzerland is the last participant in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar. The team of former Bundesliga player Murat Yakin won 3-2 goals over Serbia on Friday evening in Doha in a duel that was also politically charged after the events of the game four years ago. Switzerland will meet Portugal on Tuesday (8:00 p.m. FAZ live ticker for the World Cup) in the Lusail final stadium in the fight for a place in the quarter-finals.
“It was a very exciting game. We fought great. In the end we made progress. The first goal has been achieved, so we’re very happy,” said Swiss goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, who is under contract with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. “It was great fun, I would have liked to have had a few more balls on goal.”
There were two breakdowns before the game against Serbia and three chances straight after the kick-off. First of all, the inflatable World Cup trophy was missing, around which there is always a fireworks show in the middle circle, then the countdown to kick-off ran down, but the Swiss weren’t even ready because they swore in their circle. That seemed to have helped.
Because then they started like the fire brigade. After 18 seconds, first Granit Xhaka tried, then Breel Embolo and Xhaka failed again to goalkeeper Vanja Milinković-Savić. But Serbia also had two options. Nikola Milenković headed just wide after a corner (5th minute), Andrija Zivkovic hit the post with a brilliant long-range shot (14th).
However, the first goal came from Xherdan Shaqiri, who made the Albanian-Kosovar double-headed eagle gesture towards the Serbs after his goal in the 2018 World Cup duel and was now whistled at by their fans. After the excitement from Russia, everyone involved had protested that the focus should be on sport. This time Shaqiri ran jubilantly in front of the Serbian fan block after a goal for the lead, but only held his index finger to his mouth – provocative, but at least politically correct (20th).
No double eagle on one side, but a double strike on the other: After a cross from Dušan Tadić, Aleksandar Mitrović extended the ball to make it 1-1 into the goal of Dortmund’s Gregor Kobel, who replaced the sick goalkeeper Yann Sommer from Mönchengladbach (26′). His club colleague Nico Elvedi was also missing in central defense for this reason. Shaqiri missed the lead again when he shot wide (30′), but then things got even better for Serbia.
With a shot from the turn, Dušan Vlahović made it 2-1 (35 th ) after a fatal loss of possession in the Swiss defence. Vlahović also covered his mouth with his finger and asked the opposing fans to be quiet. That was the score it took to jump past Switzerland to second place. But luck in the table didn’t last long. Embolo equalized after a precise flat pass from Silvan Widmer from Mainz (44th), when he only had to push in from five meters. Then there was a break.
After half-time, the Swiss played like the Brazilians, who were in the round of 16 in this group before the match day. Shaqiri found Augsburg’s Ruben Vargas with a lob, which put a hoe on Remo Freuler, who made it 2: 3 (48th). Before the eyes of Swiss FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the Serbs now needed at least two goals to advance. Not one fell. Dušan Tadić still had the best chance with a drop kick (61st).
At the other end, Embolo came close to scoring from a corner (57′) and then Manuel Akanji with a free kick into the side netting (83′). But it got exciting again because of the score in the parallel game. Cameroon surprisingly took the lead against Brazil in added time. The equalizer for Serbia would have had no consequences, since Switzerland would then have won the direct comparison if they had the same number of points and goals. In addition, another goal for the Africans would have taken them to the round of 16 because they would then have had the better goal difference compared to Switzerland. It didn’t come to that.
But there were still scuffles between the players in injury time before the Swiss block. Right in the middle was Xhaka, who was hard to calm down and saw the yellow card. Already in the 65th minute he caused a stir with a provocative gesture towards the Serbian bench when he briefly touched the middle of his trousers. The Serbs were upset, the substitute goalkeeper was warned, in the meantime some were on the pitch who had no business there. But the referee calmed things down. And Switzerland cheered at the end.