Dumping neighbours France out of Euro 2020 at the Last 16 stage was one of the greatest night’s in Swiss football history and they came close to beating Spain in the quarter-finals too before losing on penalties.
World Cup 2022 saw them beat Cameroon 1-0, lose 1-0 to Brazil and beat Serbia 3-2 before being put to the sword by Portugal in the Last 16.
Euro 2024 qualification saw them finish second to Romania in Group I thanks to four wins, five draws and one loss and Switzerland are going to have to dig deep to progress ahead of two of Germany, Scotland and Hungary.
MANAGER: Murat Yakin
CAPTAIN: Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal exit looked like him swanning off into a Bundesliga sunset but he was instrumental in Bayer Leverkusen’s title win, as well as their DFB Pokal final success. They also got to the Europa League final but lost to Atalanta which ruined their unbeaten season.
STAR PLAYER: Xherdan Shaqiri. We have to give it to the former Liverpool and Bayern Munich winger don’t we? Now plying his trade with Chicago Fire in MLS, Shaqiri still has plenty of pace and a whopper of a shot.
HOW THEY GOT THERE: The Swiss scored a respectable 22 goals over their qualification campaign but the results were nothing to boast about. They beat Belarus, Israel and Andorra twice, drew with Romania once, lost in their final game against them and drew with Kosovo twice and Belarus and Israel once.
HOW WILL THEY DO: The Swiss will face Germany as well as a revived Scotland and Hungary, who are eager to prove themselves. What they’ve got going for them though is the likes of Xhaka, Shaqiri as well as Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji, Newcastle’s Fabian Schar and Inter Milan goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
They’ll aim to frustrate the opposition and it could all come down to a derby game in their final Group A match against the hosts.
BEST BET: Germany will surely top Group A so that leaves Switzerland, Scotland and Hungary battling to finish second. The Swiss struggled in qualifying with Yakin holding crisis talks with his star players so it’s hard to see them reaching the knockouts. Switzerland Stage of Elimination: Group Stage makes sense.
SWITZERLAND EURO 2024 FIXTURES & SCHEDULE
Group A
Saturday, June 15: Hungary v Switzerland, 2pm (Koln Stadium, Cologne)
Wednesday, June 19: Scotland v Switzerland, 8pm (Koln Stadium, Cologne)
Sunday, June 23: Switzerland v Germany, 8pm (Frankfurt Arena, Frankfurt)
SWITZERLAND EURO 2024 SQUAD
Yakin will confirm his final Switzerland squad ahead of the June 6 deadline. Below is his preliminary squad.
- GOALKEEPERSs: Gregor Kobel, Yvon Mvogo, Pascal Loretz, Jan Sommer, Marvin Keller.
- DEFENDERS: Manuel Akanji, Nico Elvedi, Albian Hajdari, Kevin Mbabu, Ricardo Rodriguez, Fabian Schär, Leonidas Stergiou, Silvan Widmer, Cédric Zesiger.
- MIDFIELDERS: Michel Aebischer, Uran Bislimi, Remo Freuler, Ardon Jashari, Fabian Rieder, Xherdan Shaqiri, Vincent Sierro, Filip Ugrinic, Granit Xhaka, Denis Zakaria.
- FORWARDS: Zeki Amdouni, Kwadwo Duah, Breel Embolo, Dan Ndoye, Noah Okafor, Renato Steffen, Ruben Vargas, Andi Zeqiri, Steven Zuber.
Read More on Euro 2024
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- Euro 2024 fixtures, groups and schedule for this summer’s big tournament
- Euro 2024 Golden Boot odds: Who is the favourite to be the top scorer?
- Predicted England Euro 2024 squad and Paddy Power odds for 23-man group
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