Swiss national football team / European championships

Switzerland
Suisse ( fr. )
Svizzera ( Italian )
Svizra ( advises. )
Balance sheet

European Championship record scorer:	Hakan Yakin (3)
European Championship record players:	Valon Behrami , Stephan Lichtsteiner (7 each)
Rank:	18th
Organizer:	2008 (together with Austria)
13 European Championship games 2 wins 5 draws 6 losses 8:15 goals
statistics
First European Championship game Switzerland 1: 1 England London ( ENG ); June 8, 1996 Switzerland England
Biggest European Championship win Switzerland 2-0 Portugal Basel , ( CHE ); June 17, 2008 Switzerland Portugal
Biggest European Championship defeat Switzerland 0: 3 England Coimbra ( PRT ); June 15, 2004 Switzerland England
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	4 ( first : 1996 )
Best results	Round of 16 ( 2016 )
Best results in the countries where the UEFA European Football Championships are held

(As of November 2020)

The article contains a detailed description of the Swiss national football team at European championships . Switzerland was able to qualify three times, participated once as an automatically qualified co-host and is in 18th place in the all-time best list.

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1960	France	not participated
1964	Spain	not qualified				Failed in the preliminary round to the Netherlands , which could not qualify for the final round.
1968	Italy	not qualified				In qualifying at eventual champions Italy failed.
1972	Belgium	not qualified				In the qualification of England failed, but which also could not qualify.
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Vice European Champion USSR , who could not qualify either.
1980	Italy	not qualified				In the qualifications of vice world champion Netherlands failed.
1984	France	not qualified				In the qualification to Vice European Champion Belgium failed.
1988	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of Italy failed.
1992	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification of Scotland failed.
1996	England	Preliminary round	England , Netherlands , Scotland	-	Portugal Artur Jorge	Eliminated as last group
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified				In the qualification of Italy and Denmark failed.
2004	Portugal	Preliminary round	Croatia , England , France	-	Jakob Kuhn	Eliminated as last group.
2008	Austria and Switzerland	Preliminary round	Czech Republic , Portugal , Turkey	-	Jakob Kuhn	Automatically qualifies as a co-host. Eliminated as last group.
2012	Poland and Ukraine	not qualified				In the qualification of England and Montenegro failed, but which also could not qualify.
2016	France	Round of 16	Poland	-	Switzerland/ Vladimir PetkovićCroatia	With a win against Albania and a draw against Romania and France , Switzerland reached the knockout round in second place in the group. Defeat on penalties in the round of 16
2021	Europe	qualified				Switzerland initially applied to host games with St. Jakob-Park in Basel , but then withdrew. The Swiss qualified as group winners on the last day of the match. Group opponents at the final round are Italy, Turkey and Wales.

The tournaments

EM 1960

Switzerland did not take part in the first European football championship in 1960, which was still called the “European Cup of Nations”.

EM 1964

Four years later, more teams than 1960 wanted to participate, including Switzerland. Therefore, the round of 16 was preceded by a preliminary round . Switzerland had to play against the Netherlands . On November 11, 1962, Switzerland, coached by Karl Rappan , played its first European Championship qualifier in Amsterdam , where Charles Hertig scored the first qualifying goal for the Swiss with a 1-1 draw. The Dutch were able to score two more goals and win 3-1. The 1-1 draw in the second leg four months later was not enough to advance. The Netherlands then surprisingly failed in the second round to Luxembourg , which only failed in the quarter-finals in a play-off against Denmark.

EM 1968

For the European Football Championship in 1968, group games were scheduled for the first time in qualifying . Switzerland, which was now trained by the 1938 world champion, the Italian Alfredo Foni , had to compete against Italy , Romania and Cyprus . Switzerland achieved high victories against Romania (7: 1, with Erwin Ballabio replacing the sick Foni) and Cyprus (5: 0) and a 2: 2 against Italy, but they were also 0: 4 in Italy and 1: 2 lost the last two games in Cyprus. Therefore, in the end, only 3rd place jumped out. Italy became group winners, qualified for the final round, was allowed to host it and, thanks to the luck of the draw, became European champions. Foni's work as national coach ended when he missed the qualification.

European Championship 1972

Switzerland, now trained by Louis Maurer , could not qualify for the European Championship finals in 1972 . In a group with former world champions England , Greece and Malta they fought for a long time with England for first place, but lost the home game against the English with 2: 3 and only achieved a 1: 1 in the second leg. Since England won the last game in Greece, the British were group winners. In the quarter-finals, however, they failed to Germany , which then won the title for the first time in the finals. After the qualification, Maurer resigned from his current contract despite positive votes from the Swiss public.

EM 1976

In 1976 the final round was held for the last time with four teams , Switzerland, now coached by René Hüssy , failed again in the group stage , this time against the Soviet Union , Ireland and Turkey . Switzerland could only win the home game against Ireland, which was ultimately responsible for Ireland only finishing second behind the USSR. Switzerland, which otherwise only managed a 1-1 home game against Turkey, was bottom of the group. The USSR then failed in the quarter-finals against later European champions Czechoslovakia, who won the penalty shoot-out title against defending champions Germany.

EM 1980

In qualifying for the European Championship in Italy, which was held for the first time with eight teams, the Swiss faced the Dutch, who had lost the World Cup final again in 1978 and had to do without Johan Cruyff since 1977, as well as Poland , the GDR and Iceland . The Swiss coached by Roger Vonlanthen could only win both games against Iceland, which also lost all other games, and only came fourth again. Vonlanthen resigned after a 3-0 draw against the Netherlands, but his successor Léon Walker was unable to turn the tide. Group winners Netherlands went to the European Championship, but failed there because of later European champions Germany.

EM 1984

In qualifying four years later, Switzerland, now coached by Paul Wolfisberg , faced runner- up European champions Belgium , the GDR and Scotland and lost their first game in Belgium 3-0. They only lost in the GDR (also 0: 3), but two draws and two victories were only enough for second place. Belgium was thus qualified for the European Championship finals, but in France they were eliminated in the group stage.

EM 1988

Opponents in qualifying for the Euro 1988 were again Italy, Portugal , Sweden and Malta . Switzerland has now been trained by Daniel Jeandupeux . Again the Swiss lost the first game, this time in Sweden with 0: 2, then came against Portugal only to a 1: 1 and lost in Italy with 2: 3. With that they had already missed the qualification, because in the end they had six points less than Italy in fourth. Italy then reached the semi-finals in the finals, but lost them to the USSR. Jeandupeux initially remained in office, after missing qualification for the 1990 World Cup , Uli Stielike took over the office for which it was the first coaching station.

EM 1992

The qualification for the European Championship in 1992 did not bring the desired success. Against Scotland, Romania, Bulgaria and San Marino , which took part for the first time and lost all games, there was a long open battle for the European Championship ticket in this balanced group. Switzerland then finally missed this with a 0: 1 in Romania on the last day of the game, which meant that both were tied but had one point less than the Scots. These were qualified for the first time, but failed in the final round in the group stage. By failing to qualify the term ended by Stielike was succeeded by the Englishman Roy Hodgson , the Switzerland 28 years after the last World Cup finals for the 1994 World Cup led.

EM 1996

Azerbaijani postage stamp for Switzerland's first European Championship game

For the European Championship in 1996, which was held for the first time with 16 teams, Switzerland was also able to qualify for the first time.

In a group with Turkey , Sweden, Hungary and Ireland they finished first, which they secured by beating Hungary 3-0 in the last game. Turkey qualified for the European Championship for the first time as the third-best runner-up in the group. After the successful qualification, Hodgson moved to Inter Milan as a coach , his successor was the Portuguese Artur Jorge .

At the European Championship, the Swiss were allowed to play the opening game against hosts England and secured their first point in a European Championship game with a hand penalty converted by Kubilay Türkyılmaz . But this remained the only point and the only goal, because the other group games against the Netherlands and Scotland were lost with 0: 2 and 0: 1 respectively. As the bottom of the group, Switzerland said goodbye to the EM stage for eight years and Jorge's term of office ended.

EM 2000

After missing the qualification for the 1998 World Cup , Gilbert Gress took over the office of national coach from Rolf Fringer .

For Euro 2000, Switzerland had in a group with Italy, Denmark , Wales and Belarus qualify . While the last two had nothing to do with the outcome, the first three fought openly for a long time. In the last game Italy won 0-0 in Belarus, which meant that the Italians had one point more than the Danish and Swiss tied for points. The extension of Gress 'contract then failed because of Gress' wage claim. Denmark then used the playoff games against Israel to qualify as well. In the final round, Italy reached the final for the second time, but lost it to world champions France with a golden goal . Denmark failed in the group stage.

EM 2004

The qualification for the EM 2004 was successful again. In August 2001, the Swiss football idol Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn took over the position of national coach after the Argentine Enzo Trossero failed to lead Switzerland to the 2002 World Cup . In a group with Russia , Ireland , Albania and Georgia , the Swiss ended up having one point more than Russia, which they secured with a 2-0 win against Ireland in their last game. Russia then prevailed against Wales in the playoffs of the group runners-up and also went to the European Championship.

In Portugal, the Swiss met Croatia in the first group game and reached the only point with the 0-0, playing 40 minutes outnumbered. Because against England and defending champions France followed 0-3 and 1-3 defeats - against England again for 30 minutes in a minority. It was Johan Vonlanthen in the game against France at 18 years and 141 days the youngest European Championship scorer. As the bottom of the group, Switzerland drove home, but could already plan for the next European Championship.

EM 2008

Starting line-ups for the Swiss’s first victory in a European Championship game

After the unsuccessful attempts to get the approval for the sole European Championship organization and together with Hungary, Austria had teamed up with Switzerland for the application for the European Championship 2008 and together they were successful: on December 12, 2002 they were awarded the contract for the staging of the European Championship in 2008. This meant that neither of them had to qualify for the European Championship, which meant that Austria was eligible for the first time and Switzerland for the third time. Switzerland had also qualified for the 2006 World Cup and was unluckily eliminated in the round of 16 through a penalty shoot- out. After the European Championship, she used the time up to the European Championship finals for test games in which nine wins - u. a. against the Netherlands - in one draw (against Argentina ) and nine defeats (including twice against Germany and once against Brazil ).

At the finals, Switzerland, Austria , defending champions Greece and the Netherlands - as the teams with the best UEFA coefficient - were named as group heads and Switzerland was specifically assigned to the group that played in Basel . The draw was drawn from the Czech Republic , Turkey and Portugal . In the opening game against the Czech Republic, they not only lost 1-0, but also team captain Alexander Frei , who tore his knee ligament shortly before half-time and was unable to play the rest of the European Championship. In the second game against Turkey, Hakan Yakin gave the Swiss a 1-0 lead, but the Turks first equalized in the second half and then scored the winning goal in stoppage time. In the last game against Portuguese who had already qualified for the quarter-finals, who spared some regular players and called up five previously unused players, then succeeded in a tough game with four yellow cards for both teams, the first victory in a European Championship game. Hakan Yakin scored both goals, making him Switzerland's top scorer with a total of three goals and the second top scorer of the tournament together with three other players. Jakob Kuhn's term of office ended with the end of the European Championship . His successor was Ottmar Hitzfeld , who led Switzerland to the 2010 World Cup , which was the only team there to beat eventual world champions Spain , but was eliminated in the preliminary round.

EM 2012

In qualifying for the Euro 2012 , Switzerland met England again, as well as Montenegro , Wales and Bulgaria . Switzerland started with a 1: 3 home defeat against England and a 0: 1 in Montenegro and ended up with seven points less than group winners England, which meant that only third place jumped out. Montenegro failed as group runner-up to the Czech Republic and was therefore also not qualified.

EM 2016

For the first time, 24 teams took part in the European Championship. For the draw for the qualification groups , which took place on February 23, 2014, the Swiss were placed in Pot 2. Switzerland was drawn in Group E with England. From the other pots the following were drawn: Slovenia , Estonia , Lithuania and San Marino .

The first two in the group qualified directly for the European Championship finals. If the third-placed team had finished third in the group, they would also qualify directly. The remaining third in the group played four other participants in the playoffs.

After the 2014 World Cup , Sarajevo- born Vladimir Petković took over from the resigned Ottmar Hitzfeld . The Swiss started the qualification with a 2-0 home defeat against England and a 1-0 defeat in Slovenia, but then won four games and were in second place before the last games in autumn 2015. They consolidated this and thus the direct qualification 7-0 against San Marino on the penultimate matchday.

For the group draw on December 12, 2015, Switzerland was assigned to Pot 2 due to the UEFA coefficient and was therefore able to meet hosts France, defending champions Spain or world champions Germany in the group stage, but not neighbors Italy and Austria, who are also in Pot 2 were. Switzerland was drawn into the group with France, against which a goalless draw in the last group game resulted in second place. Other group opponents were Albania, against which the opening match was won 1-0 and the Romanians, from whom they separated with a 1-1. In the round of 16, the Swiss met Poland, second in Group C. The Swiss fell behind due to a counterattack in the 39th minute, then largely dominated the game, but failed to take advantage of several scoring opportunities. It was only in the 82nd minute that Xherdan Shaqiri managed to equalize with a mixture of drop and side pull. Even in the final minutes and the subsequent extra time, they remained the dominant team, but could not score another goal. In the penalty shootout, Granit Xhaka shot wide of the goal, whereas all other shooters scored and Switzerland was eliminated.

EM 2021

The European Championship 2021 will not be held in one country, but in different venues in Europe, with the final in London's Wembley Stadium. Switzerland had initially applied to host games with St. Jakob-Park in Basel , but then withdrew the application. As the host, the Swiss would not be directly qualified and had to qualify like all other teams. Opponents in the qualification were the European champions from 1992 Denmark, Ireland, Georgia and Gibraltar . The Swiss started with a 2-0 win in Georgia, then had to accept the equalizer in the next game against Denmark after leading 3-0 in stoppage time. Since they won neither in Ireland (1: 1) nor Denmark (0: 1), the qualification was until the last day of the match despite the home wins against Gibraltar (4: 0), Ireland (2: 0) and Georgia (1: 0) open. But with a 6-1 win in Gibraltar they became group winners and qualified for the finals directly.

At the draw on November 30, 2019, the Swiss were drawn into Group A with Italy, their most frequent opponent so far, against whom they will play in Rome . Other opponents are Turkey and Wales in Baku, Azerbaijan .

Player with the most appearances in European championships

Games	player	Year (games)
7th	Valon Behrami	2008 (3), 2016 (4)
	Stephan Lichtsteiner	2008 (3), 2016 (4)
6th	Gelson Fernandes	2008 (3), 2016 (3)
	Patrick Muller	2004 (3), 2008 (3)
	Hakan Yakin	2004 (3), 2008 (3)
5	Stéphane Chapuisat	1996 (3), 2004 (2)
	Stéphane Henchoz	1996 (3), 2004 (2)
	Johann Vogel	1996 (3), 2004 (2)
	Johan Vonlanthen	2004 (2), 2008 (3)

Player with the most goals at European championships

Gates	player	Year (goals)
3	Hakan Yakin	2008 (3)
1	Kubilay Türkyilmaz	1996 (1)
	Fabian Schär	2016 (1)
	Johan Vonlanthen	2008 (1)
	Admir Mehmedi	2016 (1)
	Xherdan Shaqiri	2016 (1)

As of June 25, 2016

Players banned from European championships

In 1996 Marco Grassi received the second yellow card in the second group match and was suspended for the last group match against Scotland, in which Johann Vogel also received the second yellow card, but this had no effect because Switzerland was eliminated.
In 2004 Johann Vogel received the yellow-red card in the first group game and was suspended in the second group game. In this, Bernt Haas also received a yellow-red card and was blocked for the last group game. The second yellow card for Benjamin Huggel then had no effect as Switzerland was eliminated.
In 2008 Johan Vonlanthen and Tranquillo Barnetta received the second yellow card in the last group game , but this had no effect due to the Swiss elimination.

Share of players playing abroad in the EM squad

Legionnaires were the minority in the first EM squad, but the largest contingent in the following two.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
1996 (3)	6 (3 in Germany, 1 in England, 2 in France)	Stéphane Chapuisat (3), Stéphane Henchoz (3), Ciriaco Sforza (3); Marc Hottiger (2); Marco Grassi (2), Christophe Ohrel (0)
2004 (3)	12 (5 in Germany, 2 in England, 3 in France, 2 in the Netherlands)	Bruno Berner (0), Ludovic Magnin (1), Jörg Stiel (3), Raphael Wicky (3), Hakan Yakin (3); Bernt Haas (2), Stéphane Henchoz (2); Fabio Celestini (2), Alexander Frei (2), Patrick Müller (3); Johan Vonlanthen (2), Johann Vogel (2) (C)
2008 (3)	16 (6 in Germany, 3 in England, 4 in France, 2 in Italy, 1 in Austria)	Tranquillo Barnetta (3), Diego Benaglio (2), Philipp Degen (0), Alexander Frei (1), Ludovic Magnin (3), Christoph Spycher (0); Johan Djourou (0), Gelson Fernandes (3), Philippe Senderos (3); Stéphane Grichting (1), Daniel Gygax (1), Stephan Lichtsteiner (3), Patrick Müller (3); Valon Behrami (3), Gökhan Inler (3); Johan Vonlanthen (3) (C)(C)
2016 (4)	18 (11 in Germany, 2 in England, 2 in France, 2 in Italy, 1 in Turkey)	Roman Bürki , Johan Djourou (4), Nico Elvedi , Fabian Frei (1), Marwin Hitz , Admir Mehmedi (4), Ricardo Rodríguez (4), Fabian Schär (4), Haris Seferovic (4), Yann Sommer (4) , Granite Xhaka (4); Valon Behrami (4), Xherdan Shaqiri (4); Gelson Fernandes (3), François Moubandje ; Blerim Džemaili (4), Stephan Lichtsteiner (4), Eren Derdiyok (1) (C)

As of June 25, 2016

Johan Vonlanthen , youngest European championship scorer

Records

Youngest European Championship goalscorer: Johan Vonlanthen , born on February 1, 1986, in the match between Switzerland and France at the European Championship 2004 at the age of 18 years and 141 days

Negative records

Switzerland and Romania had the longest dry spell until their first victory at the European Championships with 8 games. In the last group game of EM 2000 against England, Romania was able to win an EM game for the first time and even qualify for the quarter-finals. Switzerland won a European Championship game for the first time in 2008 in the last game against Portugal, which was insignificant for both teams.
Switzerland is one of the five hosts who were eliminated in the group stage: Belgium 2000, Switzerland and Austria 2008, Poland and Ukraine 2012 - in all cases they were co-hosts.

Games

London

Birmingham (2)

Leiria

Coimbra (2)

Basel (3)

Baku (2)

Venues (green = positive balance, red = negative balance, yellow = balanced balance, number in brackets = number of games if> 1)

The Swiss have played 13 European Championship games so far, of which only two have been won, six lost and five ended in a draw. A game had to be extended and was lost on penalties. The Swiss took part twice in the opening game of the European Championship, once against and once as hosts. You played once against the defending champions, but never against the eventual European champions.

None of the previous games meant the greatest defeat or the greatest victory against these countries.

No.	date	opponent	Result	occasion	venue	AH/*	Remarks
All EM games
1	06/08/1996	England England	1: 1	Opening game	London ( ENG )	A.
2	06/13/1996	Netherlands Netherlands	0: 2	Group game	Birmingham ( ENG )	*
3	06/18/1996	Scotland Scotland	0: 1	Group game	Birmingham ( ENG )	*	Last game under coach Artur Jorge
4th	06/13/2004	Croatia Croatia	0-0	Group game	Leiria ( PRT )	*
5	06/17/2004	England England	0: 3	Group game	Coimbra ( PRT )	*
6th	06/21/2004	France France (TV)	1: 3	Group game	Coimbra ( PRT )	*
7th	06/07/2008	Czech Republic Czech Republic	0: 1	Opening game	Basel	H
8th	06/11/2008	Turkey Turkey	1: 2	Group game	Basel	H
9	06/15/2008	Portugal Portugal	2-0	Group game	Basel	H	Last game under coach Jakob Kuhn
10	06/11/2016	Albania Albania	1-0	Preliminary round	Lens ( FRA )	*	With Taulant Xhaka, who plays for Albania, and his brother Granit , who plays for Switzerland, two brothers faced each other in a European Championship match for the first time.
11	06/15/2016	Romania Romania	1: 1	Preliminary round	Paris ( FRA )	*
12	06/19/2016	France France	0-0	Preliminary round	Villeneuve-d'Ascq ( Lille ) ( FRA )	A.
13	06/25/2016	Poland Poland	1: 1 nV; 4: 5 i. E.	Round of 16	Saint-Etienne ( FRA )	*
	06/12/2021	Wales Wales		Group game	Baku ( AZE )	*
	June 16, 2021	Italy Italy		Group game	Rome ( ITA )	A.
	06/20/2021	Turkey Turkey		Group game	Baku ( AZE )	*