Sports Mole previews Saturday’s friendly clash between Switzerland and Austria, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Switzerland and Austria conclude their preparations for Euro 2024 with an international friendly at St Gallen on Saturday evening.
Both teams enter this game in positive form and will want to extend their respective runs ahead of the trip to Germany.
Match preview
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There were times during 2023 when Switzerland appeared to be a fading nation under Murat Yakin, with their only win in their concluding seven matches coming against Andorra.
Draws at home to the likes of Belarus and Kosovo were unexpected, yet they had accumulated enough points at the start of the qualifying phase to book their place at Euro 2024.
This year, though, Switzerland have been much improved. A goalless draw in Denmark in March was followed by a hard-earned 1-0 success versus Republic of Ireland in Dublin.
Yakin’s side were always expected to see off Estonia earlier this week, yet they ran riot in a 4-0 victory, the first time that they have scored at least four goals in a match since March 2023.
With their final Euro 2024 group-phase game coming against Germany, Yakin will be eager to see a performance on Friday that will help them hit the ground running in their opening with Hungary.
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Of all the mid-range sides who are playing at Euro 2024, Austria are the ones who have built up the biggest head of steam ahead of trying to make an impact.
Ralf Rangnick‘s team have incredibly prevailed in 12 of their last 15 matches, including recording six successive games in a run that has included Germany, Turkey and Serbia.
Austria have been hit by some notable injuries that could dent their hopes, yet overcoming Serbia by a 2-1 scoreline earlier this week will provide Rangnick with some reassurance.
An opening contest with France lies ahead of Das Team once this contest is done and dusted, but the current focus is on trying to avoid just their second defeat since November 2022.
These two sides have incredibly not squared off in qualifying or a major tournament since 1954, with the last contest being a friendly in 2015 which Switzerland won by a 2-1 scoreline in Vienna.
Switzerland form (all competitions):
Austria form (all competitions):
Team News
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Zeki Amdouni will hope that his goal as a substitute against Estonia will lead to a recall to the Switzerland XI.
Leonidas Stergiou and Cedric Zesiger may be given starts at the back courtesy of Manuel Akanji having had a hectic campaign with Manchester City and Fabian Schar having recently return from injury.
Kevin Mbabu and Ruben Vargas could also feature down the right, while Granit Xhaka may be another player to drop to the bench.
With Florian Grillitsch having suffered a head injury during the friendly with Serbia, no risks will be taken on the Austria midfielder.
Konrad Laimer is in line to start in his place, with Philipp Lienhart, Stefan Lainer, Andreas Weimann and Michael Gregoritsch all pushing for opportunities.
Switzerland possible starting lineup:
Mvogo; Stergiou, Zesiger, Elvedi; Mbabu, Xhaka, Freuler, Ndoye; Vargas, Amdouni, Zuber
Austria possible starting lineup:
Pentz; Lainer, Lienhart, Wober, Prass; Seiwald, Laimer; Wimmer, Weimann, Schmid; Gregoritsch
We say: Switzerland 1-1 Austria
While we expect this to be a competitive contest throughout, there will naturally be some trepidation about pushing too hard at this stage of their preparations. With that in mind, a low-scoring draw could play out.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.