Switzerland go head-to-head with Portugal of their World Cup spherical of 16 tie on Tuesday night.
When Murat Yakin introduced his squad, he was so happy with the wealth of expertise at his disposal that he mentioned: “We have been spoiled for selection.” The 26 which made the lower are actually tasked with changing into the primary Swiss facet since 1938 to win a knockout match on the males’s World Cup.
Here is the XI Yakin could choose with historical past on the horizon.
GK: Yann Sommer – Switzerland’s agile primary made a tournament-high 21 saves finally 12 months’s Euros. He is solely been pressured into 9 to date in Qatar.
RB: Silvan Widmer – Places his success down to 2 issues: “I do know what I would like, and I do know what I can do.”
CB: Nico Elvedi – The stable, if unspectacular, centre-back is going through a race towards time to recuperate from an sickness forward of the knockout rounds.
CB: Manuel Akanji – Certainly one of Akanji’s tattoos reads: “Show them mistaken”. A sentiment he has carried out since recovering from an ACL damage very early in his profession.
LB: Ricardo Rodriguez – A veteran of 4 main tournaments, Rodriguez has missed simply 33 minutes of soccer for Switzerland on the World Cups and Euros since 2014.
CM: Granit Xhaka – When his household returned from the notorious match which noticed Xhaka booed by Arsenal’s followers, his profession in north London seemingly over, his mum was the primary one to talk. “So…” she started, “what do you need to eat?”
CM: Remo Freuler – A late bloomer, Freuler was often called “Mini” again in Zurich as he was all the time the smallest participant on every group he lined up for.
AM: Djibril Sow – Coumba Sow, Djibril’s cousin, is a world for the Swiss ladies’s nationwide group and scored towards Portugal when the nations met in final summer season’s European Championships.
RW: Xherdan Shaqiri – The one participant in World Cup historical past to have scored a hat-trick comprising totally of left-footed objectives opened his account in Qatar towards Serbia – along with his left foot naturally.
ST: Breel Embolo – The Cameroon-born striker gave an replace on his nationwide leaning final 12 months, admitting that he’s “in all probability 60 or 70% Swiss now, much more so than I’m African”.
LW: Ruben Vargas – With a former worldwide trampolinist as a mom and a semi-professional baseball participant as a father, Vargas comes from sporting inventory.
Harry Symeou hosts Andy Headspeath, Toby Cudworth & La Liga TV presenter Semra Hunter to look again on the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa – be part of us!
When you can’t see the podcast embed, click on right here to obtain or take heed to the episode in full!
