Doha: Swiss teams tended to play defensive football in the World Cup. However, they will be looking to play a different brand of football in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Switzerland are featuring in the World Cup for the 12th time overall and fifth consecutively.
Switzerland coach Murat Yakins mission will be difficult in Qatar. However, his success in forming a new team through counting on young players, qualifying for the World Cup at the expense of Italy, will give him confidence for the challenge ahead.
Many did expect Switzerland to reach the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 after Yakin took over, especially that many key players like Granit Xhaka, Breel Embolo and Haris Seferovic were injured. But Yakins’ squad regained confidence and reached the World Cup.
Difficult tasks will continue facing Switzerland in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, after they were placed in a strong Group G with Brazil, the record World Cup winners, as well as Serbia and Cameroon. Switzerland faced both Brazil and Serbia at the group stage back in 2018 in Russia.
Switzerland’s first match in Qatar will be against Cameroon on November 24 at Al Janoub Stadium. They will face Brazil in the second round on November 28 at Lusail Stadium. Their final match of the group stage will be against Serbia on December 2 at Stadium 974.
The Swiss chose Le Royal Meridien Doha as accommodation premises for the team during the tournament period and shall initiate their trainings at QU Stadium.
The Swiss team succeeded in reaching the World cup 2022 finals after leading Group C of the European Qualifiers, which included Italy, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania, and maintained their record of unbeaten games, and remained in the top place with 18 points after winning five matches and three games ended in a draw.
This will be Switzerland’s 12th participation in the World Cup, after 1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1994, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018. Their best results were to reach the quarterfinals on three occasions in 1934, 1938 and 1954.
Since reaching the quarterfinals in 1954, Switzerland have not been able to replicate this achievement and, instead, settled for reaching the last-16 on four occasions. Switzerland played 37 matches in their World Cup history, during which they managed to win 12 matches, draw in 8 matches and lose 17. They scored 50 goals and conceded 64.
At the European level, Switzerland do not have any notable participations. They reached the quarterfinals of UEFA EURO 2020 and were beaten by Spain on penalties. Switzerland’s participation in the Euros include 18 matches during their five participations through which they had managed to win 3 matches, draw 8 of their matches, defeated in 7 matches, scored 16 goals and their goalkeeper conceded 24 goals.
One of the best players in Swiss history is Heinz Hermann who played in 118 international matches. Alexander Frei is the all-time leading scorer for the Swiss national football team with 42 goals.
The current squad includes prominent players like Breel Embolo, Xherdan Shaqiri, Haris Seferovic, Steven Zuber as well as Granit Xhaka and Manuel Akanji.
Source: QNA
