On Saturday 29 June at 6 pm in Berlin, Switzerland-Italy will be played, the first match of the round of 16 at the European Men’s Football Championship. Both teams finished second in their groups: Switzerland in Group A with Germany, Hungary and Scotland, Italy in Group B with Spain, Croatia and Albania, but between the two teams, Switzerland has so far seemed to have the clearest ideas and the most effective and consolidated game tactics, while Italy has not yet managed, except in the first half hour against Albania, to express its game and put into practice the “commandments” of its coach Luciano Spalletti.
The winner of the match between Italy and Switzerland (which in the event of a draw will go to extra time and then possibly penalties) will play against the winner of England-Slovakia. Italy and Switzerland also faced each other at the 2021 European Championships, in the groups, and Italy won 3-0. They then played each other twice more, in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers: both the first and second legs ended in a draw and on both occasions Italian midfielder Jorginho missed a penalty. In the end, Italy finished second, with two points less than Switzerland, and then lost in the playoffs, failing to qualify for the World Cup for the second time in a row.
Switzerland has been a stable presence in international tournaments for years, having always progressed beyond the group stage in the last three World Cups and European Championships; however, they have only once progressed beyond the round of 16, at the 2021 European Championships, when they eliminated France in a surprising match won on penalties after coming back from 3-1 to 3-3. The round of 16 has so far been the moment in which Switzerland has shown its limits, but this consistency of results shows that it has great experience, and in fact three of the five players with the most appearances in the history of the national team still play there: defender Ricardo Rodriguez, midfielder and captain Granit Xhaka and attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri.
Xherdan Shaqiri is 32 years old and is no longer a regular starter for Switzerland, but he has often scored notable goals at the European Championships and World Cups (the last one he did against Scotland last week)
During the qualifiers for these European Championships, Switzerland was not particularly brilliant, because it won only 4 matches out of 10 and qualified as second place in an overall easy group, won by Romania. For this reason, there was also talk of a possible dismissal of coach Murat Yakin, a Swiss of Turkish origin, who has coached the national team since 2021. In the end, however, Yakin was confirmed and decided to change the game system, moving from 4-3- 3 to 3-4-2-1. The addition of a central defender allowed Switzerland to be less exposed to opponents’ attacks and counterattacks, something that often happened also due to the choice to press in a very high and aggressive manner, and therefore inevitably leave free space for their own shoulders.
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In the three group matches, Switzerland won 3-1 against Hungary and drew 1-1 against Scotland and Germany, against whom they demonstrated that they can cause problems for any opponent, thanks above all to their excellent work without the ball in pressing phase, in which the whole team participates, and then the ability to quickly move towards the opponent’s goal once the ball has been recovered. In attack, Switzerland plays very fast, mobile players who are good at moving into space, thus giving the opposing defense few points of reference.
Among the players who have stood out the most is the 23-year-old Dan Ndoye, who scored his first goal for the national team against Germany and who is creating several problems for the opposing defenses: also because he constantly changes positions with the others his attacking partners, Fabian Rieder and Breel Embolo (but also Ruben Vargas, when he plays). Ndoye plays for Bologna like Remo Freuler and Michel Aebischer, two fundamental midfielders for Switzerland both when he has to build attacking actions and when he has to defend himself.
Freuler, 32 years old, midfielder for Bologna and Switzerland (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
In these games Yakin is playing Aebischer in a very effective hybrid position, that is, as a left winger in defense but as a midfielder who can move inside in possession. Along with Xhaka, who has had an exceptional season with Bayer Leverkusen, Freuler is the player who contributes most to the team’s intensity, that is, to making it go at a very high pace, without taking breaks. Against Germany, Switzerland remained ahead until the ninety-second minute, when Niclas Füllkrug equalized: without that goal, they would have finished first in the group, and Italy would have played against Germany in the round of 16.
The leader of the Swiss defense is Manchester City’s 28-year-old Manuel Akanji. The other two defenders, Ricardo Rodriguez and Fabian Schär, are experienced and good with their feet, but could be put into difficulty by the attackers who come in at speed behind them. Against Switzerland, on the one hand, Italy will have to be able to match the physical strength and intensity of their opponents, on the other hand they will have to be more courageous compared to the matches against Spain and Croatia in the ball possession phase. Having more initiative will serve to resist the opponent’s pressing and free up space for his offensive players such as Federico Chiesa and Gianluca Scamacca (who should return to the starting lineup), but also Davide Frattesi, whose best characteristic is his ability to make insertions, that is, to arrive at run into the area and surprise defenses.
