DAfter a thrilling game for a long time, Switzerland is the last participant in the round of 16 of the World Cup. 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 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup and on MagentaTV) in the fight for a place in the quarter-finals.
There were two breakdowns before the game against Serbia and three chances straight after the kick-off. First, the inflatable World Cup trophy was missing, around which there is always a fireworks show in the center circle, then the countdown to kick-off ran down, but the Swiss were not ready. But then they started like the fire brigade. After 18 seconds, Granit Xhaka tried, but then Breel Embolo and Xhaka again failed to keeper Vanja Milinković-Savić. But Serbia also had two options. Nikola Milenković headed just wide (5th minute), Andrija Zivkovic hit the post (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. This time he ran jubilantly in front of the Serbian fan block, but only put his index finger in front of his mouth – a little 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 came on for the sick Yann Sommer from Mönchengladbach (26′). Shaqiri missed the lead again when he shot wide (30′), but then things got even better for Serbia. Dušan Vlahović made it 2-1 (35′) with a shot from the turn. He too put his finger to his mouth. 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 pass from Silvan Widmer from Mainz (44th).
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.
