European Football Championship 2008 / Switzerland

The Swiss national football team at the 2008 European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland .

In contrast to the previous soccer World Cup in 2006 , Switzerland could not reach the knockout round, but was eliminated early after the second preliminary round game, the final victory against the preliminary group winner Portugal could no longer prevent this. After Belgium in 2000 , Switzerland became only the second EM host to be eliminated in the group stage. Hakan Yakin scored all three of the Swiss goals .

qualification

As co-hosts of the European Championship, the Swiss team did not have to play a qualification.

Swiss contingent

On May 13, 2008, coach Jakob Kuhn announced a preliminary 26-man squad for the European Championship tournament. He had to do without two players, goalkeeper Fabio Coltorti from Racing Santander and striker Blaise Nkufo from Twente Enschede , until May 20, 2008 due to injuries . On May 28, 2008, he announced the following definitive list, whereby Mario Eggimann and Thomas Häberli were not taken into account:

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Diego Benaglio	VfL Wolfsburg	09/08/1983	2	0	0	0	0
18th	Pascal Zuberbühler	Neuchâtel Xamax	01/08/1971	1	0	0	0	0
21st	Eldin Jakupović	Grasshopper Club Zurich	10/02/1984	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Johan Djourou	Arsenal FC	01/18/1987	0	0	0	0	0
3	Ludovic Magnin	VfB Stuttgart	04/20/1979	3	0	1	0	0
4th	Philippe Senderos	Arsenal FC	02/14/1985	3	0	0	0	0
5	Stephan Lichtsteiner	Lille OSC	January 16, 1984	3	0	0	0	0
13	Stéphane Grichting	AJ Auxerre	03/30/1979	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Christoph Spycher	Eintracht Frankfurt	03/30/1978	0	0	0	0	0
20th	Patrick Muller	Olympique Lyon	December 17, 1976	3	0	0	0	0
23	Philipp Degen	Borussia Dortmund	02/15/1983	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Benjamin Huggel	FC Basel	07/07/1977	0	0	0	0	0
7th	Ricardo Cabanas	Grasshopper Club Zurich	January 17, 1979	2	0	0	0	0
8th	Gökhan Inler	Udinese Calcio	06/27/1984	3	0	0	0	0
10	Hakan Yakin	BSC Young Boys	02/22/1977	3	3	1	0	0
14th	Daniel Gygax	FC Metz	08/28/1981	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Gelson Fernandes	Manchester City	09/02/1986	3	0	1	0	0
16	Tranquillo Barnetta	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	May 22, 1985	3	0	2	0	0
19th	Valon Behrami	Lazio Rome	April 19, 1985	3	0	0	0	0
striker
9	Alexander Frei	Borussia Dortmund	07/15/1979	1	0	0	0	0
11	Marco Streller	FC Basel	06/18/1981	1	0	0	0	0
12	Eren Derdiyok	FC Basel	06/12/1988	3	0	1	0	0
22nd	Johan Vonlanthen	FC Red Bull Salzburg	02/01/1986	3	0	2	0	0
Trainer
	Jakob Kuhn		October 12, 1943

Games of Switzerland

Crew quarters

The Swiss national team met on May 19, 2008 at Landsitz Lohn , where they were received by Federal Councilor Samuel Schmid. The team then traveled to Lugano to the Hotel Villa Principe Leopoldo & Residence . The training sessions were held in the Stadio di Cornaredo .

The national team has been staying at the Panorama Resort & Spa in Feusisberg since the beginning of June , where several preparations have already been made. The trainings are completed in Freienbach .

Preparation games

Before the start of the European Championship tournament, the national team played two test matches, against Slovakia on May 24th and against Liechtenstein on May 30th. The team won against Slovakia 2-0 with goals from Valon Behrami and Alexander Frei. In the second preparation game against Liechtenstein, the national team won 3-0. The goals were scored by Frei (2 goals) and Johan Vonlanthen.

Preliminary round

• June 7 in Basel : Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic (0-0)
• June 11 in Basel: Switzerland 1-2 Turkey (1-0)
• June 15 in Basel: Switzerland - Portugal 2-0 (0-0)

Trivia

• After Belgium in 2000, Switzerland and Austria are the second hosts of a European football championship that was eliminated in the preliminary round.
• The 2-0 win against Portugal was Switzerland's first win at a European Championship and at the same time the first game and the first European championship in which Switzerland scored more than one goal.