Switzerland aren’t supposed to do things like this. The Swiss have developed a reputation for being to the European Championship what Mexico are to the World Cup — they always qualify from the group stage, but they never progress past the first knockout round — aside from when they squeezed past France after a penalty shootout three years ago.
But this was different. Here, Switzerland completely outplayed the holders, Italy, and thoroughly deserved their 2-0 victory. “It wasn’t just that we won,” said their manager Murat Yakin. “It was the way we won. That was hugely rewarding.”
The pre-tournament suspicion in Switzerland was that this could be the tournament when their record of five straight knockout stage qualifications at World Cups and Euros — something only France could match — may come to an end. Instead, maybe they will disprove the other part of the reputation, the sense they never really leave a lasting impression on a tournament. This victory itself surely qualifies as their best result of the 21st century, in front of a crowd in Berlin that was dominated by red Swiss shirts.
Italy looked like they weren’t prepared for the challenge of playing Switzerland, which was hugely surprising as Yakin’s side played roughly as they did throughout the group stage. In particular, there was a strong similarity with how they defeated Hungary in the first group game, with plenty of rotation down the left.
Yakin suggested that he had actually wanted his side to diversify his side’s attacking threat. “I wanted our play to go down the right a bit more,” he said. “To make more of both flanks — not just the left. That makes our gameplan more unpredictable.”
But from the outside, it looked all about the left.
On paper Switzerland use a three-man defence, a system Yakin surprisingly switched to after a disappointing qualification campaign, which had prompted doubts about his job security. But the three-man defence on paper becomes something different.
Ricardo Rodriguez, the former left-back renowned for his crossing ability, doesn’t stay as a left-sided centre-back but instead makes sudden overlapping runs. That allows Michel Aebischer, establishing himself as one of the breakout stars of the tournament, at 27, to move inside from wing-back to become something of a bonus No 10. And that movement means Ruben Vargas, the left-sided attacker, can stay wide or dart inside in turn, always surprising his opponent with his movement. Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Italy’s right-back, had perhaps the toughest game of his career in the 1-0 group stage loss to Spain, bamboozled by the footwork of Spain winger Nico Williams. This experience wasn’t much better, as various players buzzed around him — note Rodriguez, Aebichser and Vargas all in the space he was supposed to be defending.
It wasn’t just Rodriguez who provided surprise overlapping down the left. Such was Switzerland’s threat down that side, the first goal came when Dan Ndoye, Switzerland’s right-winger, suddenly popped up on the left to combine with Vargas. That run distracted Di Lorenzo and his defensive colleague Alessandro Bastoni, opening up a passing lane from Vargas into Remo Freuler, who burst into the box and finished via a deflection.
Vargas scored the second, which felt like it settled the game, just 27 seconds into the second half. Again it came from a left-sided combination, this time with Aebischer in his regular position outside, Granit Xhaka pushing forward into the channel, and Vargas completing the triangle with movement into the inside-left position. His shot, curled beautifully into the far corner, was textbook.
“Just before the second half, Granit said to me, ‘Ruben, please get a goal’”, he said. “When I got the ball, I remembered that.”
Italy offered little. This was their fourth game of the tournament — they conceded the first goal in all of them. They have become one of the most baffling sides in international football. It was strange enough that they won Euro 2020 and failed to qualify for the World Cups either side of it. Now their side simply lacks individual quality. Only four key players from their European Championship success three years ago played a major role here. Goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma was again excellent. The aforementioned Di Lorenzo has endured a difficult tournament. Midfielder Nico Barella is now playing a different, much deeper role, while winger Federico Chiesa hasn’t been the same since missing a year with a serious knee injury. You look at this squad and wonder where the star quality is, particularly in attack.
Aebischer is having a standout tournament (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
For nearly a century, Italy have long had a reputation for defensive football, but the ironic thing was that they always produced top-class attackers; the narrative was that it was frustrating that they didn’t make the most of them. Now Italy have gradually shifted to a more attacking style, but have they produced a world-class attacker since the generation that won the World Cup in 2006?
Manager Luciano Spalletti gave a lengthy, rambling and downbeat press conference when he admitted his side weren’t good enough, but surprisingly focused on his side’s lack of physicality on the hottest day of the tournament.
“We need players with more physicality,” he said. “When you think you can play through quality, but then in terms of tempo you lose that intensity and can’t sustain it for 90 minutes, it’s only natural that then you need to mix things up and bring in physicality,” he said. “We saw in those one-against-one duels that we struggled and that makes it difficult to win the ball back.”
Physical components are always a major part of matches, and Italy have long had a complex about their apparent lack of physicality — it’s often cited as a reason they prefer to play defensively, to prevent becoming exposed to individual duels. But Switzerland were superior in terms of technical quality, imagination and combination play in the final third. “All the other coaches had 20 games in charge, some of them more — I only had ten,” Spalletti protested, with some justification.
But the Italian inquest can wait, especially with Spalletti due to conduct another press conference tomorrow. This was about Switzerland. “We need to savour the enthusiasm we’ve created,” said Yakin. “We’ve done it through blood, sweat and tears, not through good luck.” They will face England or Slovakia in the next round, and on the basis of performances so far, Switzerland will start as favourites against either.
(Top image: Switzerland’s players celebrate their deserved win over Italy. Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images)