Serbia vs Switzerland: Switzerland won 3-2 against a very active Serbia team and moved on to the next round of the World Cup.
Cameroon beat Brazil surprisingly late in the game, so Switzerland’s win was crucial for them to finish in second place.
As has been the case with most games on matchday three, the game was wide open from the start, and both teams knew they had a good chance of moving on. Breel Embolo almost scored in the first few minutes of the game, and then Serbia almost scored from a corner.
As things calmed down a bit, Serbia started to take control. They tried to stretch the game out and hit their two strikers. But Switzerland was ready to get past the wing-backs, and they did so after 20 minutes to take the lead. Ricardo Rodriguez sent the ball into the box, picked up by Djibril Sow, and passed to Xherdan Shaqiri, who scored.
But Dragan Stojkovic’s team didn’t back down, and just six minutes later, Aleksandar Mitrovic almost broke the net with a powerful header off a cross from Dusan Tadic. It brought the score back to even.
Shaqiri was soon no longer a hero. When he made a bad pass back toward his own goal, Serbia jumped on it. Tadic picked up the loose ball and passed it to Dusan Vlahovic. As Vlahovic moved away from the plan, he shot back across Gregor Kobel and into the far corner for a 2-1 lead.
Even so, three goals before halftime were not enough. Switzerland didn’t panic as Serbia did, and Embolo quickly got to the back post and smashed in their second goal to tie the game before halftime.
The game’s fast-paced nature carried over into the second half as well. A long pass from Switzerland led to a smart move on the edge of the box, where Remo Freuler made an excellent finish to put his team back in the lead.
As the game continued, a goal early in the second half helped Switzerland. Serbia became more frantic and less likely to hurt Murat Yakin’s team. which significantly broke Serbia because they couldn’t get Kostic and Tadic on the ball as often as they did in the first half.
It was embarrassingly transparent when Mitrovic fell to the ground after 65 minutes to try to get a penalty, but who didn’t fool the referee? Unfortunately, the incident called the Serbian bench angry, and they rushed onto the field. It stopped the game, which they were trying to win.
Serbia seemed to lose because they took out Vlahovic early in the game. Their chances of scoring went away, and as time went on, it became less likely that they would score two goals and change the way Group G played out.
Switzerland started to act more like their usual, calm selves as the game ended. In extra time, tensions rose again because Serbia couldn’t come close to scoring an equalizer, which showed how upset they were about being kicked out of the World Cup.
Serbia player ratings (3-4-1-2)
GK: Vanja Milinkovic-Savic – 4/10 – Switzerland’s three strikes were not even close. Not a good sign of confidence.
CB: Nikola Milenkovic – 5/10 – Five minutes in, they had a chance with a header that they really should have done better with.
CB: Milos Veljkovic – 3/10 – All over the place regarding the position. He didn’t know how to control his goal area.
CB: Strahinja Pavlovic – 3/10 – Like Serbia’s defense during the tournament, he didn’t do much to make himself look good.
RWB: Andrija Zivkovic – 5/10 – Zivkovic’s evening was much less exciting because Kostic did most of the work.
CM: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic – 4/10 – Not a very good tryout for clubs that might want to sign him.
CM: Sasa Lukic, 5/10. Who won the game in the transitions, so Lukic didn’t do much?
Filip Kostic left wing-back, got a 6/10. When he got the ball out wide, he made things happen, so it’s a mystery why Serbia didn’t find him more often.
AM: Dusan Tadic – 8/10 – Switzerland had trouble because there was a lot of space to float into and use in different ways. It’s too bad they couldn’t get the ball to him after the half.
ST: Aleksandar Mitrovic, 8/10, scored with a bullet header to tie the game. In the penalty area, the guy is a danger.
ST: Dusan Vlahovic – 7/10 – He showed his class why he needs to start with his movement and goal. A real poacher.
Substitutes Nemanja Gudelj – 5/10
Luka Jovic: 5/10. When Vlahovic was taken off and Jovic came on, the Swiss defense had much less to do.
Dragan Stojkovic, the team’s manager, got 5/10. Stojkovic and his team tried hard, but it was too late. Also, they need to learn how to defend themselves.
Player rating for Switzerland (4-2-3-1)
GK: Gregor Kobel got 6/10 because neither of Serbia’s two goals could have been stopped.
RB: Silvan Widmer – 5/10 – Kostic did a lot of damage in the first half. But as Serbia’s power went down, he gained some ground.
CB: Manuel Akanji (6/10): Mitrovic left him in the dust when it counted. After the break, he got much better, which immensely helped his teammates.
Fabian Schar, a cornerback, got a 4/10 because he was thrown into the starting lineup and had a hard time. They were faster, better positioned, and more robust when it mattered. I would have been glad that Serbia took Vlahovic off the field.
LB: Ricardo Rodriguez – 6/10 – Didn’t worry about going forward and starting attacks. Had different amounts of success.
DM: Remo Freuler – 6/10 – He did his best to stop Serbia’s counterattacks, which were like a flood. The critical word here is “tried.” But he scored at the start of the second half, so he gets a pass.
DM: Granit Xhaka – 5/10 – It’s too bad he couldn’t get more of the ball and control the game as he often has for Arsenal this season. Disappointing.
RW: Xherdan Shaqiri (7/10): He was given a lot of room in the box, but he finished the job well.
AM: Djibril Sow – 6/10 – It took a lot of calm to pass the ball to Shaqiri for the first shot instead of taking it himself. A performance that looks good.
LW: Ruben Vargas – 6/10 – struggled in the first half, but he started to take on more exciting roles in the second half.
ST: Breel Embolo, 8/10. On a night when everyone was watching Serbia’s top two players, Embolo held his own. Except for when, around the hour mark, he poked a ball over from right in front of him.
Manager: Murat Yakin – 7/10 – It worked no matter what he said to his team at halftime. Even though they were missing a few key players, his team showed grit and, most importantly, knew how to score.
Breel Embolo was the best player in the game (Switzerland)
