The defending champions are packing their bags! A bad performance was punished by Freuler. I hope it’s not the end of the road, says the Swiss coach

Yesterday, Switzerland played their first semi-final match against Italy. The defending champions from Italy did not perform well and lost 2: 0. While the footballers from the Apennine Peninsula have been criticised, the Swiss are deservedly praised. In the quarter-finals, they will face the better of England and Slovakia.

A lacklustre performance sent Italy home

The Italians were the worse team from the start. They didn’t create many chances, they were not good in attack, and that’s why the Swiss were the ones to score the first goal. In the 37th minute, after a quick action, Freuler got to the ball in the whitewash, he worked it into a volley and then shot to the near post, giving Donnarumma no chance.

The Italians went into the box with a one-goal deficit. Whatever plans they had to equalise were thwarted by Ruben Vargas a few dozen seconds into the second half. From the edge of the penalty area, he shot to the back post and the Italian goalkeeper again had no chance.

But the Italians still struggled to get a shot away. One of the best chances was a header by Swiss defender Schär, who accidentally sent the ball into the bar of his own net. The Swiss then pulled back a little and Italy had more space to create chances.

Perhaps the biggest was a chance for Scamacca, who found himself in close proximity to Sommer’s goal. But he had to stretch for the ball and that’s why he sent it only to the bar. Squadra azurra did not come up with anything else and deservedly lost the match and bid farewell to the championship.

Vargas made Xhaka’s wish come true and secured the win

The Swiss have once again broken into the top eight in Europe. ‘I hope this is not the end of our journey, that we will continue to make national history,’ believes coach Murat Yakin.

“We have friends and families with us. The players will decide how to plan their evening, but they won’t go to any parties. They are too big professionals for that,” Yakin added when asked how the players will celebrate.

“Just before the start of the second half, Granit Xhaka said to me, ‘Please score.’ Seconds later, I had the ball at my feet, shot and did what Granit said,” says Ruben Vargas, the second goal scorer.

For the third tournament in a row, the Swiss have been putting in great performances and yesterday only confirmed it.“We have shown in the past that we can compete with the biggest teams. The praise from outside won’t affect us too much. We know how good we are. We’re just focusing on ourselves,’‘ Vargas said.

Vargas adds: “Therehave been big upsets in the past at big tournaments. We realize that no match is easy. Itwill be up to us how we perform on the day, whether we show everything we can do,”

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