Murat Yakin is confident that his Switzerland team will show the ‘best’ version of themselves in Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final tie against an England side who “have had problems” at this summer’s tournament.
Murat Yakin is confident that his Switzerland team will show the ‘best’ version of themselves in Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final tie against an England side who “have had problems” at this summer’s tournament.
The Three Lions were regarded by many as the pre-tournament favourites to go all the way at Euro 2024, but they have performed well below par in all four matches thus far, including three underwhelming group-stage outings despite topping Group C.
Gareth Southgate‘s men were then given an almighty scare in their last-16 clash with Slovakia, ranked 40 places below them, and were just 86 seconds away from an embarrassing 1-0 elimination.
However, Jude Bellingham came to the rescue and scored an overhead kick in the 95th minute to take the game to extra time, before captain Harry Kane completed the comeback with a header just 52 seconds after the restart to secure a 2-1 victory.
England will now test their mettle against a high-flying Swiss outfit, who outclassed a sluggish Italy outfit to knock out the holders by a 2-0 scoreline in their last-16 tie.
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Yakin expecting ‘open game’ against England
Many fans and pundits have made Switzerland the favourites for Saturday’s contest, something unimaginable prior to the tournament, and Yakin has made a prediction for how the game may unfold at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf.
“Which team is the favourite? When you see England’s squad and my squad, their value is bigger than ours,” the Swiss boss told reporters.
“Let’s play the game. It’s an open game. We are in a good situation. We play well and got good results and good spirits in the team.
“Of course, they [England] have had problems in games when the rival played defensively. It’s not easy to play against a team that has a big block in defence.
“And now maybe for us, it’s a good situation when you have an opponent that wants to play football. It’s an open game.
“We know the strong and the weak sides of England. We are ready to show our best side against England. We just focus only on my team.”
![England's Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden looked dejected on June 25, 2024 [IMAGO]](https://sm.imgix.net/24/26/jude-bellingham-phil-foden.jpg?w=640&h=480&auto=compress,format&fit=clip "England's Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden looked dejected on June 25, 2024 [IMAGO]")
© Imago
Yakin: ‘Why can’t we beat England?’
Yakin is optimistic that his side can overcome England and make history by becoming the first-ever Switzerland side to reach the semi-finals at a European Championship.
“We played against Germany and we were good,” Yakin added. “We played against Italy, also a big team. So, why not beat England now?
“In a good mood. Let’s see. It’s a good challenge and my team is ready to have this big fight against big England.”
Switzerland, who are yet to lose at Euro 2023, finished second in Group A after following up a victory over Hungary with consecutive draws with Scotland and Germany, conceding a 92nd-minute equaliser to draw 1-1 with the latter.
Ranked 19th in the world by FIFA, Switzerland have lost only one of their last 14 international matches, but they have failed to win any of their previous three encounters with England at a major tournament (D1 L2).
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