Switzerland, parading the experienced Xherdan Shaqiri, have enjoyed a purple patch over the last few years. At the UEFA EURO last year, the Nati made it all the way to the quarter-finals, knocking out FIFA World Cup holders France in the process before losing to Spain on penalties.
The subsequent qualifying campaign for Qatar 2022 could harldy have gone any better. Five wins and three draws, with 15 goals scored and just two conceded, saw Murat Yakin’s men edge out Italy at the top of the group.
The bubble burst slightly in 2022, with the Swiss managing just one solitary win over Portugal in two friendlies and four UEFA Nations League matches. They suffered four losses and a draw during that six-game run, shipping ten goals. The defence suddenly seemed fragile, and Yakin will have to get his team back to the form shown in qualifying.
Should he manage to do that, then the sky is the limit for Switzerland in Qatar.
Here, we take a closer look at the Nati squad and pick out five men set to play a key role.
Xherdan Shaqiri
Position: Attacking midfielder or winger
Age: 30
Known for his short (1.65 m) and stocky build, Shaqiri is the player in Yakin’s squad with the most international appearances to his name: 106 to be exact, with 26 goals to boot. That puts him fourth overall behind Stephan Lichtsteiner (108 caps), Alain Geiger (112) and Heinz Hermann (118).
On the domestic front, Shaqiri has a well-stocked trophy cabinet, having won the German Bundesliga three times and the English Premier League once, plus two UEFA Champions League triumphs and another two at the FIFA Club World Cup™. Last February, he made the move over to the MLS, where he now plays for Chicago Fire.
Vice-captain Shaqiri is a key figure in Yakin’s squad. He is the conduit between midfield and attack, often playing in an advanced role just behind the forward line. He featured in six of the World Cup qualifying matches, scoring one himself and setting up five more, underlining his importance to Switzerland’s offensive capabilities.
With Xhaka and Freuler behind him, Shaqiri knows that he can enjoy a lot of freedom to set off on a run and take on the opposition defence. He can also play out wide on the right, and while there is usually plenty of rotation amongst the other forwards in the Swiss squad (Breel Embolo, Haris Seferovic, Steven Zuber and Renato Steffen), Shaqiri will likely find his name on the team-sheet in Qatar on a regular basis.
Ricardo Rodriguez
Position: Left-back or centre-back
Age: 30
Rodriguez has certainly enjoyed a storied career to date. As a youth international, he won the FIFA U-17 World Cup, while on the domestic front, he made 149 Bundesliga appearances for Wolfsburg, taking home a DFB-Pokal winner’s medal. Then, after a short spell at PSV, he has now played in over 100 Serie A games, first for AC Milan and now with Torino.
Rodriguez’s versatility and experience will be crucial to the Swiss backline. He is more likely to line up on the left in Qatar, with Nico Elvedi and Manuel Akanji now looking like an established centre-back pairing.
With 98 caps and nine goals for his country, Rodriguez will be looking to clock up a century very soon. During the qualifying campaign, he only missed one match, featuring in the starting line-up for all the others. Born in Zurich but with Spanish and Chilean heritage, Rodriguez has the proverbial sweet left foot which is useful at set-pieces, and he is also a threat down the flanks, feeding the forwards with a steady diet of crosses.
Yann Sommer
Position: Goalkeeper
Age: 33
Yann Sommer is the backstop of the Swiss team in every sense of the word. The penalty-saving specialist can always be relied on to put in a solid performance for club and country, and has proved his worth on countless occasions.
He made his international debut under Ottmar Hitzfeld in 2012 and now has 74 caps and major-tournament experience aplenty to his name, having been first choice in the sticks at Russia 2018 and the last two EUROs.
In Qatar 2022 qualifying, Sommer played every minute of every game and conceded just two goals. Switzerland’s defence, with Sommer behind it, will be crucial to the team’s success, with all three group-stage opponents – Brazil, Serbia and Cameroon – known for their attacking prowess.
Granit Xhaka
Position: Midfielder
Age: 29
With 104 caps and 12 goals, Xhaka is one of the most experienced members of Murat Yakin’s squad. He plies his domestic trade at Arsenal and is the captain and nerve centre of the Swiss team.
Born in Basel but with family from Kosovo and Albania – brother Taulant plays for Albania – Xhaka has a full range of strings to his bow. While he is often categorised as an aggressive on-the-pitch leader who never shirks a tackle, he is an incredibly skilful footballer who can pick apart a defence with a cleverly-weighted pass.
Injuries restricted him to just two games in the World Cup qualifying campaign, but the captain has been back in the starting line-up for all six matches this calendar year. The fact that only one of those ended up in a win will doubtless provide plenty of motivation for an experienced campaigner like Xhaka, who has over 100 Bundesliga appearances and 200 more in the Premier League to his name. If anyone can drag the Nati up by its bootstraps ahead of the World Cup, it’s this man.
Remo Freuler
Position: Midfielder
Age: 30
Another lynchpin of the Swiss central midfield is Freuler. The 30-year-old joined Atalanta in 2016 and went on to make over 200 appearances for the club, including a number as captain and plenty in European competition.
Freuler then chose to move to Nottingham Forest ahead of this season. He has yet to establish himself with the newly-promoted club, and often finds himself on the bench in the East Midlands. For Switzerland meanwhile, he has won 46 caps, scoring four goals in the process.
Like Xhaka, Freuler is the complete package who loves a midfield battle while also being capable of picking a pass. He is also a very good reader of the game – a fact not lost on coach Yakin, who invariably picked him in the starting line-up throughout the World Cup qualifying campaign. He and Xhaka will likely be pulling the strings for the Nati in Qatar.
