Page 11 - Soccer360 Issue 106

NICKNAME: RED CROSSES S360 PREDICTION | 12TH PLACE
GROUP A - UEFA EURO 2024
FACTFILE
POPULATION:
8.8 million
EURO FINALS APPEARANCES: 5
BEST FINISH:
Quarter-finals, 2020
MOST MEMORABLE EUROS MOMENT: Their stunning fightback to beat France in a penalty shootout at Euro 2020.
HOW THEY GOT TO EURO 2024: Finished second behind Romania in qualification Group I.
LAST EUROS APPEARANCE: 2020 - Recovered from a slow start to reach the quarter-finals before losing on penalties to Spain.
MOST CAPPED PLAYER: Granit Xhaka, 123 caps
LEADING INTERNATIONAL SCORER: Alexander Frei, 71 goals
HOW TO FOLLOW:
ALEXANDER FREI
VS HUNGARY VS SCOTLAND VS GERMANY JUNE 15TH JUNE 19TH JUNE 23RD 9:00AM | EST 3:00PM | EST 3:00PM | EST
FIFA RANKING 19TH
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland are hoping to match their run to the quarter-finals at Euro 2020 but must improve on an unconvincing qualifying campaign, as Stephen Donovan explains.
EURO APPEARANCES: 5
EURO CHAMPIONSHIPS: 0
THEIR BEST THREE EUROS
2020
2008
2016
7TH
9TH
11TH
UEFA EURO OVERALL RECORD PLD:18 W:3 D:8 L:7
THE COACH:
MURAT YAKIN
After a less than distinguished performance in qualifying, the jury is very much out on Murat Yakin’s time in charge of Switzerland, so he badly needs a good tournament to ease the pressure that has built over recent months. He has the experience to call upon as well as some exciting players who fit nicely into his 4-3-3 setup, but he needs them to show the ruthlessness to go with their neat possession football.
KEY PLAYER:
GRANIT XHAKA
Now Switzerland’s most capped player in history, Granit Xhaka arrives at Euro 2024
on the back of a wonderful season where he helped Bayer Leverkusen to a first Bundesliga title. Renowned for his tenacity and always playing on the edge, he is a linchpin for the Red Crosses in both attack and defence, while he’ll need no introduction to hosts Germany when they meet in their final Group A match.
SPIRITED SCOTS
Switzerland are one of only two European sides - the other being France - to qualify for the knockout rounds of each of the
past five major tournaments, but despite boasting this impressive record they have rarely looked capable of taking the next step and becoming potential dark horses. It feels like a similar story surrounds them heading into Euro 2024, with Murat Yakin’s team more than likely to advance from the group stage but not fancied to go much further. The realistic objective will be to emulate their achievements at Euro 2020, where they came back to defeat France in a
classic before narrowly missing out on
a place in the semi-finals. In order to do
that they need to improve on what was an increasingly ragged showing in qualifying, where in a fairly tame group they drew five of their 10 matches and often displayed poor game management. However, this is
an experienced squad that has the ability and knowhow to be competitive in Germany, with Granit Xhaka still their driving force
in midfield while in Fabian Schar and
Manuel Akanji they have two of the Premier League’s best defenders. The only thing they lack is a proven goalscorer, and with Breel Embolo a doubt for the tournament due to injury, they’ll be pinning their hopes on Zeki Amdouni and Noah Okafor to deliver the goods.
PROBABLE STARTING XI
VARGAS
ZAKARIA
ELVEDI
NDOYE
FREULER
AMDOUNI
XHAKA
AKANJI
COMERT
SOMMER
SCHAR
SOCCER360 SUMMER 2024 9