Football World Cup 2014 / Switzerland

This article covers the Swiss national football team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil . Switzerland took part in the final round for the tenth time and in a final round in South America for the third time . Switzerland did not qualify for the last finals in South America in 1978 and did not take part in the first in 1930.

qualification

Switzerland was able to secure first place undefeated in their qualification group E with seven wins - four of them away wins - and three draws. Opponents were Iceland , Slovenia , Norway , Albania and Cyprus . The second-placed Icelandic team failed in the playoff games to Croatia .

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Switzerland	10	7th	3	0	017: 600	+11	24
2.	Iceland	10	5	2	3	017:150	+2	17th
3.	Slovenia	10	5	0	5	014:110	+3	15th
4th	Norway	10	3	3	4th	010:130	−3	12
5.	Albania	10	3	2	5	009:110	−2	11
6th	Cyprus	10	1	2	7th	004:150	−11	05

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Switzerland
07.09.2012	Ljubljana	Slovenia	-	Switzerland	0: 2 (0: 1)	Xhaka (20th), Inler (51st)
09/11/2012	Lucerne	Switzerland	-	Albania	2: 0 (1: 0)	Shaqiri (23rd), Inler (68th / Elf)
October 12, 2012	Bern	Switzerland	-	Norway	1: 1 (0: 0)	Gavranović (79.)
10/16/2012	Reykjavík	Iceland	-	Switzerland	0: 2 (0: 0)	Barnetta (66th), Gavranović (79th)
03/23/2013	Nicosia	Cyprus	-	Switzerland	0-0
06/08/2013	Geneva	Switzerland	-	Cyprus	1: 0 (0: 0)	Seferović (90.)
06.09.2013	Bern	Switzerland	-	Iceland	4: 4 (3: 1)	Lichtsteiner (15th, 30th), Schär (27th), Džemaili (54th / Elfm.)
09/10/2013	Oslo	Norway	-	Switzerland	0: 2 (0: 1)	Schär (12., 51.)
10/11/2013	Tirana	Albania	-	Switzerland	1: 2 (0: 0)	Shaqiri (47th), Lang (77th)
October 15, 2013	Bern	Switzerland	-	Slovenia	1: 0 (0: 0)	Xhaka (74.)

Ottmar Hitzfeld used a total of 26 players. No player was used in all games. Seven players made 9 out of 10 games. With Josip Drmić , Pajtim Kasami , Michael Lang , Fabian Schär and Haris Seferović , five newcomers came to their first competitive games during qualification, with Drmić and Kasami making their debut in a competitive game. The top scorer was Fabian Schär with three goals, nine other players contributed the remaining goals. Ottmar Hitzfeld had a lucky hand with his substitutions: On October 12, 2012, Mario Gavranović came on in the 71st minute against Norway , who scored the 1-0 eight minutes later and Haris Seferović in the 73rd minute on June 8, 2013 , who scored the 1-0 final score in the 90th minute. In the highest-scoring game in the series on September 6, 2013 against their strongest rival Iceland, the Swiss had to accept the goal to equalize 4: 4 in the first minute of stoppage time.

preparation

Test matches:

• 0March 5 in St. Gallen against Croatia : 2-2 (goalscorer for Switzerland: Drmić / 34th and 40th)
• May 30 in Lucerne against Jamaica : 1-0 (goalscorer: Drmić / 84.)
• 0June 3 in Lucerne for the first time against Peru : 2-0 (goal scorers: Lichtsteiner / 78th and Shaqiri / 84th)

Squad

Switzerland's squad for the World Cup is listed below. Ten players were also in the 2010 squad, four of them as well as Blerim Džemaili and Johan Djourou also in the squad for the 2006 World Cup, of which Tranquillo Barnetta played the last seven World Cup games but was not used at the 2014 World Cup.

No.	player	society	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	Date of birth	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
01	Diego Benaglio	VfL Wolfsburg	57	0	08 Sep 1983	4th	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	3	0
21st	Roman Bürki	Grasshopper Club Zurich	0	0	Nov 14, 1990	0	0	0	0	0
12	Yann summer	FC Basel M.	6th	0	Dec 17, 1988	0	0	0	0	0
Defense
05	Steve from Bergen	BSC Young Boys	41	0	June 10, 1983	2	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
20th	Johan Djourou	Hamburger SV	44	1	Jan. 18, 1987	4th	0	1	0	0	2006	3	0
06th	Michael Lang	Grasshopper Club Zurich	6th	1	0Feb 8, 1991	1	0	0	0	0
02	Stephan Lichtsteiner	Juventus Turin M	63	5	Jan. 16, 1984	4th	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
13	Ricardo Rodriguez	VfL Wolfsburg	21st	0	Aug 25, 1992	4th	0	0	0	0
22nd	Fabian Schär	FC Basel M.	6th	3	Dec 20, 1991	2	0	0	0	0
04th	Philippe Senderos	Valencia CF	53	5	Feb. 14, 1985	1	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	4th	1
03	Reto Ziegler	US Sassuolo Calcio	35	1	Jan. 16, 1986	0	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
midfield
07th	Tranquillo Barnetta	Eintracht Frankfurt	74	10	May 22, 1985	0	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	7th	1
11	Valon Behrami	SSC Naples P	48	2	Apr 19, 1985	4th	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	2	0
15th	Blerim Džemaili	SSC Naples P	34	1	Apr 12, 1986	4th	1	0	0	0	2006	0	0
16	Gelson Fernandes	Sc freiburg	47	2	0Sep 2 1986	1	0	1	0	0	2010	3	1
08th	Gökhan Inler	SSC Naples P	73	6th	June 27, 1984	4th	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
23	Xherdan Shaqiri	FC Bayern Munich M, P	33	9	Oct 10, 1991	4th	3	0	0	0	2010	1	0
14th	Valentin Stocker	FC Basel M.	24	3	Apr 12, 1989	1	0	0	0	0
10	Granite Xhaka	Borussia Monchengladbach	26th	4th	27 Sep 1992	4th	1	1	0	0
attack
19th	Josip Drmić	1. FC Nuremberg A	7th	3	0Aug 8, 1992	4th	0	0	0	0
18th	Admir Mehmedi	Sc freiburg	21st	1	16. Mar. 1991	4th	1	0	0	0
17th	Mario Gavranović	FC Zurich P	11	4th	Nov. 24, 1989	0	0	0	0	0
09	Haris Seferović	Real Sociedad	11	1	Feb 22, 1992	4th	1	0	0	0

(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given.

1. ↑ M = The club became champions of its country in the 2013/14 season, A / R = The club was relegated from the highest league in the country (or is in relegation), P = The club was won in the 2013/14 season Cup winners.

Finals

Group stage

Brasília Salvador Manaus Porto Seguro São Paulo

Preliminary round venues (red), round of 16 venue (green) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Switzerland was chosen for the first time in the history of the World Cup due to its position in the FIFA world rankings from October 2013 and was drawn in Group E. Even at the home World Cup in 1954, Switzerland was not seeded and had to play against the seeded English and Italians. Former world champions France, Ecuador and Honduras were drawn. France are the fifth most popular opponents of Switzerland and were already opponents in the group stage at the 2006 World Cup when they both made it to the round of 16. The pre-World Cup record against France is negative with 12 wins, 9 draws and 15 defeats. In the previous only comparison, Honduras were opponents in the preliminary round at the 2010 World Cup and Switzerland gambled away reaching the round of 16 with a 0-0 draw. Switzerland had never played against Ecuador before the World Cup.

Switzerland had not played in any of the three venues before the World Cup.

The team's quarters were the La Torre resort in Porto Seguro .

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2014 / Group E

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	France	3	2	1	0	008: 200	+6	07th
2.	Switzerland	3	2	0	1	007: 600	+1	06th
3.	Ecuador	3	1	1	1	003: 300	± 0	04th
4th	Honduras	3	0	0	3	001: 800	−7	00

Sun., June 15, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Brasília
Switzerland	-	Ecuador	2: 1 (0: 1)
Fri., June 20, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. CEST) in Salvador da Bahia
Switzerland	-	France	2: 5 (0: 3)
Wed., June 25, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Manaus
Honduras	-	Switzerland	0: 3 (0: 2)

Round of 16

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2014 / final round

Tuesday, July 1, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in São Paulo
Argentina	-	Switzerland	1: 0 a.d. (0: 0)

Before that there were 6 games against Argentina (4 defeats and 2 draws, 3:14 goals). At the world championships, both met once before: Argentina won 2-0 in the preliminary round in 1966.

Sports impact

In the FIFA world rankings , Switzerland fell by three places from 6th to 9th place, although 67 points were gained.

Resignations

Even before the World Cup, national coach Hitzfeld announced that his term of office would end with the World Cup. He ended his coaching and football career. He had coached the Swiss in 61 games and led them to two World Cup finals.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ These 23 players are going to Brazil for the # WM2014! Official Twitter account of the Swiss Football Association, published on May 13, 2014, accessed on May 13, 2014
2. ↑ List of players / list of joueurs FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 (as of May 13, 2014) , updated after the games against Jamaica and Peru.
3. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
4. ↑ fifa.com: "World Champion Germany takes over the top position"
5. ↑ NATIONAL TEAMS → managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld

Web links

• All qualifying games in Switzerland
• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance