Switzerland weathered the storm of an all-action Serbia to beat them 3-2 and book their spot in the last 16 of the World Cup.
With Cameroon finding a remarkable late winner against Brazil elsewhere in Group G, a Switzerland victory proved crucial in the end when it came to securing their second place finish.
As has been the case with most fixtures in matchday three, the game was wide open from the off with both teams knowing they had a very real chance of advancing. Breel Embolo came close mere minutes into the game, before Serbia went down the other end and almost scored themselves from a corner.
Serbia began to dominate as proceedings calmed down somewhat, trying to stretch the play and hit their two strikers. Switzerland were well poised to break beyond the wing backs, though, and did exactly that to pull ahead after 20 minutes. Ricardo Rodriguez fired a ball into the box, which Djibril Sow scooped up and laid into the path of Xherdan Shaqiri who rattled it home.
Dragan Stojkovic’s side didn’t flinch, though, and pulled back level just six minutes later when Aleksandar Mitrovic almost burst the net with a tremendous header from Dusan Tadic’s cross.
Shaqiri soon went from hero to zero. His sloppy pass back towards his own goal saw Serbia pounce. Tadic picked up the loose ball and slipped through to Dusan Vlahovic who, moving away from the goal, reversed a shot back across Gregor Kobel and into the far corner for 2-1.
Of course, though, three goals before half-time simply weren’t enough. Much like Serbia, Switzerland didn’t panic, and Embolo was alert to arrive at the back post and smash in their second to send the game into the break level.
The frantic nature of the game inevitably bled into the second half. A long ball from Switzerland turned into a smart passage of play on the edge of the box, where Remo Freuler finished off tremendously to give his side the lead once again.
A goal early on in the second half suited Switzerland as the game drew on, with Serbia suddenly looking more frantic and less likely to hurt Murat Yakin’s side. Serbia were unable to get Kostic and Tadic on the ball as regularly as they did in the first half, which hurt them significantly.
That showed in rather embarrassing amounts when Mitrovic hurled himself to the floor in search of a penalty after 65 minutes, which of course didn’t fool the referee. Unfortunately, the incident riled up the Serbian bench, who flooded onto the pitch and caused a pause in play – of a game they were…
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