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Switzerland and Sweden are ready for the quarter-finals of the Football World Cup. If the Confederates want to reach the round of 16 in St. Petersburg for the first time in 64 years at a World Cup on Tuesday (16:00 / ORF live), the Scandinavians could end a run of 24 defeats at home. United States in 1994, A favorite is hard to spot.
01.00, 03 Jul 2018
Both teams are convinced the group stage through the l '. unit of the team and shook great powers in the fray. Sweden held a draw in the 1: 2 against the world champion missed later in Germany, Switzerland had a 1-1 draw against Brazil. Especially among the Swiss, the confidence was great. "Sweden is feasible," said Valon Behrami. The midfielder spoke of a great opportunity to "finally take this step". In the quarterfinals, the winner of England would wait for Colombia as opponent.
The "Nati" has been several times in the race. Two years ago, the selection of SFV at the European Championships failed in the knockout stages of the penalty shoot-out against Poland. 2014 at the World Cup in Brazil was against Argentina also in the first round of knockout after the overtime (0: 1) final. The moment seems favorable now to write the story. The team of coach Vladimir Petkovic has proved that their sixth place in the FIFA rankings is not a coincidence. Petkovic himself said after the first knockout phase: "We always want more, we are never satisfied."
Switzerland has developed its membership of the world class enlarged over the years, proof of being able to do more, but not yet, the fact that the only defeat of the last 20 international matches took place during the qualification match for the World Cup vs. European Champions in Portugal, shows critical observers that the team is not ready for the very big. In St. Petersburg, there is a possibility to oppose it.
Petkovic must rebuild his team in important positions. With captain and right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner and central defender Fabian Schär, there are two pillars of the defensive chain missing due to the yellow obstacles. Michael Lang, who will travel to Mönchengladbach after the World Cup as the fifth player of the Swiss team, and Johan Djourou should take their seats. Petkovic was not worried: "The team can do it," he said.
The largest construction site remains the attack, in which Haris Seferovic and Mario Gavranovic have shown little. In the 2: 2 against Costa Rica at the conclusion of the group the achievement quite was bad. Especially in the fast counter-attacks, the Swiss were vulnerable. You have to work on it, said Behrami. After all, Swedes "almost always play counter-attacks".
Northerners do it extremely effectively. They had to clear heavy trucks to go that far. In qualifying, they first won against the Netherlands before retiring to Italy. In Russia, they won the group with the reigning champion Germany. "As long as we continue to work as a team, to fight together, we are hard to beat," said captain and defender Andreas Granqvist
"We won against the world champion, we go from l & # 39; before. " just a first step, "predicted striker Marcus Berg.From Zlatan Ibrahimovic has even triumphed in the selection of the title.The eccentric meanwhile is no longer missing in the selection of the country. the star striker was one of the many decisions of team director Janne Andersson, which turned out to be correct
The style of Sweden's game is not the most spectacular, leaving the participants in question. "This is not the most entertaining football, the English reporters say that we are boring, but who cares?" said Albin Ekdal. Efficiency is the motto of Sweden. "Fortunately, football is not decided by Tiki-Taka's passes," quipped the midfield strategist, who must abandon his suspended side Sebastian Larsson. Gustav Svensson is available as a replacement.
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