Swiss for a snack – Sport – Kommersant

In the final two matches of the group stage of the World Cup, Cameroon, scoring a goal already in injury time, unexpectedly outplayed Brazil – 1: 0, and Switzerland won a strong-willed victory over Serbia – 3: 2. Despite their setback, the Brazilians finished first in Group G, while the Swiss finished second.

Before the matches of the third round in group G, Brazil scored 6 points, Switzerland – 3, and Cameroon and Serbia – 1 each. That is, the situation here was exactly the same as in group H, where, a few hours before, South Korea, which had only 1 point, unexpectedly beat the leader, Portugal, and left Uruguay on the sidelines, whose chances of getting into the playoffs were quoted higher. The Brazilians, already guaranteed a place in the 1/8 finals, looked very solid in the previous two matches against strong European teams, so it was impossible to believe in their hypothetical defeat from Cameroon, even despite the abundance of sensations at the current tournament. However, another Qatari surprise was still born, albeit in compensated time. Without an injured ankle Neymar and several other first-team players, but with 39-year-old defender Dani Alves, who became the oldest player in his team in the history of the World Cup, missing a dozen net scoring chances, Brazil conceded an own goal at the very end of the game. Vincent Abubakar excelled at the Cameroonians, who used a canopy from the right flank of the attack and left no chance for goalkeeper Ederson.

However, the fate of the second ticket to the playoffs, as one might have expected, was still decided in the confrontation between the Serbs and the Swiss. And despite the fact that their head coach Murat Yakin was left without main goalkeeper Jan Sommer and leading central defender Niko Elvedi, who caught a cold under the Qatari air conditioners, the first dangerous moment arose at the Serbian gate. Goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had to repel a dangerous blow from Brel Embolo, who scored the only Swiss goal at that time in the tournament in the first round match against Cameroon. Then the Serbs dominated for about a quarter of an hour. During a corner, defender Nikola Milenkovic scored a dangerous shot, then Andrija Zhivkovic hit the post. However, the Swiss fought back, and then carried out a quick attack, which turned out to be fatal for the youngest participant in the match – 21-year-old Serbian defender Strahini Pavlovich. It was he who, trying to knock the ball out of the penalty area in the 20th minute, redirected it to his opponent. And it was from him that the rebound happened after the blow of Xherdan Shaqiri, which baffled Milinkovic-Savic.

In order to recoup, the Serbian national team had six minutes. And it was done in a football elegant way. Dusan Tadic crossed from the left flank to Alexander Mitrovic, who is famous for his ability to play on the second floor, and with an elegant, slight nod of his head, he sent the ball into the goal from an average distance. The goalkeeper of the Swiss Gregor Kobel, who spent only the third match for the national team, could only see him through his eyes. Shaqiri soon missed a real chance to make a double.

Ten minutes later, Mitrovic was back in the spotlight. But now he was already very subtly assisting Dusan Vlahovic, who played only half an hour in the match against Brazil, did not enter the field against Cameroon, and now, with his crown shot from his left foot into the far corner, he brought the Serbian national team forward. If its head coach Dragan Stojkovic had the same brilliant defensive players, the Swiss would hardly have bounced back in the first half. But they managed to do it, drawing a geometrically perfect attack, which, after a cross from Sylvan Widmer, was completed by Embolo. And immediately after the break, they created a small collective masterpiece with a magnificent heel pass from striker Ruben Vargas to defensive midfielder Remo Freuler, who shot Vanya Milinkovic-Savic almost point-blank.

It might seem that the main events of the match are yet to come, but this is where the holiday of increased performance ended. Embolo missed the opportunity to make a double from a couple of meters, Tadic missed the ball in an advantageous situation and, by decision of Stojkovic, was soon replaced after another Serbian pillar of the attack, Sergei Milinkovic-Savic, but the score remained the same. And the most striking plot of the last minutes was the emotional clash between Granit Xhaka and Nikola Milenkovic and the light melee that followed, reminiscent of the recent match of the Russian Cup “Zenith” – “Spartak”. Only the number of yellow cards changed, of which the Serbs collected a total of seven, and the Swiss four. This is how the last participant in the 1/8 finals was determined – Switzerland, which, having scored the same 6 points as Brazil, remained in second place in terms of the difference between goals scored and conceded (4:3 vs. 3:1).

In total, eight European teams entered the playoffs, two each from South America, Africa and Asia, the Australian team, also representing the Asian Confederation, and the US team from the Confederation of Football of North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). And the full schedule of matches of the first round of the play-offs looks like this.

• December 3rd. 18.00. Netherlands – USA. 22.00. Argentina – Australia.
• December 4th. 18.00. France – Poland. 22.00. England – Senegal.
• 5th of December. 18.00. Japan – Croatia. 22.00. Brazil – South Korea.
• December 6. 18.00. Morocco – Spain. 22.00. Portugal – Switzerland.

Evgeny Fedyakov