Switzerland were disappointed overboard against Serbia and suffered their third defeat in a row.
Gregor Kobel scores: Shortly before the break, Serbia scored 1-0.
0:2 in Serbia, and that’s after a performance that didn’t start well and got worse and worse: the Swiss footballers also lost their third game in the League of Nations. After a successful European Championship, they slipped into crisis.
Many security forces were on duty in Leskovac on Saturday evening. In the past there have been outbreaks of heat at matches between Serbia and Switzerland, at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and four years later in Qatar.
Politics were always on the field in this duel, the conflict between the Serbs and the people of Kosovo, from which the families of various Swiss footballers came. In Leskovac, they only have Granit Xhaka left, and of course all eyes are on the Swiss captain at the start.
Whistle for Xhaka
It had been confirmed by both sides beforehand that this evening should only be about football. But the Serbian audience will soon be singing “Kosovo, Srbija” for the first time. They do it with some persistence, and the whole stadium gets involved. Before that, they bowed to the Swiss national anthem – and of course Granit Xhaka, every time they touched the ball.
On the pitch, the Serbs are initially more welcoming. They leave the ball to the Swiss team and make no attempt to participate in the game. The result is a game of shockingly low intensity, in which the Swiss are almost always on the ball but almost nothing with it.
But something happened in this game as the first half progressed. The Serbian audience is losing interest in the provocation. And her team begins to participate in the game. He is now more stubborn in the duels. The Swiss have a hard time with this. When the Serbians took the lead shortly before half-time as Nico Elvedi deflected a free-kick into his own goal, it was no longer a big surprise.
Terrible second half
The Swiss now have to react, but they don’t succeed at all, on the contrary: they deliver a terrible second half. The Serbians have a big chance in the near future and they are now constantly surpassing the Swiss with their physicality and their commitment. After 61 minutes, Aleksander Mitrovic beat, of all people, Manuel Akanji, the otherwise reliable defensive boss, and scored in a spectacular fashion – 2-0 for Serbia.
Moments later the Swiss don’t put one foot in front of the other. When they finally managed to combine and Dan Ndoye was fouled at the penalty spot, striker Breel Embolo, who was lucky again, narrowly missed the penalty after 72 minutes.
And so the Swiss resigned to their fate in the second half. In a game where so many emotions were fear, they are completely emotionless. This also applies to Granit Xhaka, who is otherwise known for being stoic. This evening it is his – and from the Swiss point of view it is understandable only in his case.