England and Switzerland 1-1 on the pitch in the quarter-finals of the European Football Championship
England Switzerland
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“I’m very proud to have played 100 games as national team manager, but that’s the least important statistic of the week. All that matters is getting England to the semi-finals again. I’m sure I’ll be winning in the years to come. I look at it with pride, but right now I’m concentrating on this moment.” This is what Gareth Southgate said on the eve of the Euro 2024 quarter-final against SwitzerlandSo far, the England coach, as well as his opponents, have had to deal with criticism of his team's performance, which was “saved” against Slovenia thanks to individual exploits by his “stars” Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. Southgate admits that his team's way of producing football has not been impressive so far. “We want to play as well as we can, because every team wants to show emotion. We had opponents who made it very difficult for us and there was a lot of expectation on my team. But now it feels different in training,” he says. “Much more flexible.” But what does the England coach think of Switzerland? “It has been excellent so far,” he replies. They have good players and a manoeuvre that always causes problems for other teams. Against them we will have to reach the top level.“They play with a five-man defence,” he continues, “but sometimes they adjust it during the game with a four-man formation, in short they are very ‘flexible’. Our aim is simply to cause them problems.” As for the English team, tomorrow should be the day for Shaw to make his debut in this European Championship, who should replace Trippier on the left flank, but Southgate did not give any assurances.
“It doesn’t matter how they play, they are in the quarter-finals and they can hurt you at any time: so we have to be prepared and we will not underestimate England.” Swiss defender Fabioin Cha says thatS, because in Dusseldorf it is the day of the match against the English, in a quarter-final that would have been Italy's had they not been humiliated by the Swiss. Instead, it will be Schar and his teammates who will face Harry Kane and his teammates, who have certainly not been enchanted so far from a playing point of view, on the contrary, but that does not mean that the commitment will be taken lightly. “We have watched the English play in the last few games, they know our strengths, but for Switzerland it would be great to show what we are capable of,” says the defender. To prevent those who eliminated the Azzurri and make his team's play more effective, English coach Gareth Southgate is said to be considering moving to a three-man defence and thus to a 3-4-3 formation.
What does Switzerland coach Murat Yakin think? “I am focused on my team, to try to repeat the performance against Germany and Italy – he answers -. We do not know what England intends to do, but they have a lot of quality. As for us – he continues – we are in good shape, we have great confidence in ourselves and we have shown in many matches that we are able to play against great teams, we played well against the title holders and against the hosts, so we will cause problems for England. We will see what happens in the end.” Switzerland feared that they would not be able to count on Granit Xhaka who was suffering from a muscle problem, but after the final medical tests, the “mastermind” of the Swiss midfield was deemed fit to play. “Granit has a lot of experience, he is in good shape and has trained with the team – commented Yakin -. I count on him 100% and I think that he and the whole team will play a great match tomorrow.”
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