Victory Over the Swiss Would Be a Big Plus
If you were to list all the things that could go wrong in a big game, you’d be hard pushed to list something that didn’t happen to Scotland on Friday night against Germany.
The simple fact of the matter is though that we lost 5-1. It’s the biggest opening game scoreline in the history of the Euros. Can’t really compare World Cups as some of the earlier ones had straight knockout rounds and they had bigger wins.
It’s Scotland’s worst defeat at the Euros in ten matches – previously we’d only lost by two goals at most. It’s Scotland’s second worst defeat at any finals, only the 7-0 defeat to Uruguay at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland was worse.
And yes I am putting the video here now or I’m not doing this properly. Feel free to skip it.
While goal different might not factor into the overall position in the group right away, it still could and more importantly it does define which of the four third place finishers go through to the last sixteen. If it wasn’t important to get more than three points before Friday night, and I did note the two previous tournaments had issues around that, it definitely is now.
To get more than three points, we need to get something from each of our two remaining group games. Whether that’s two wins or a win and a draw, we can’t afford to lose again. Do that and we’ll almost certainly be on the usual plane home after the group stages.
First up then is Switzerland, arguably the tougher of the two games since they beat Hungary 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Our record against the Swiss is pretty mixed. We’ve played them sixteen times, winning eight of them, drawing three and losing five.
The most obvious thing that comes to mind is that we’ve met Switzerland at the Euros before. Back in Euro 96 at Villa Park, Scotland won 1-0 thanks to Ally McCoist’s strike.
It’s the last time we beat the Swiss, and the last time we’ve played them competitively, but of course it ended in disappointment as the single goal victory wasn’t enough to take us through to the quarter finals and the Netherlands went through instead. Some would argue it’s David Seaman’s fault for the Patrick Kluivert goal that went through his legs, but really we just didn’t score enough ourselves. The McCoist goal was our only goal of the tournament after all.
The last time we played Switzerland at all was a 3-1 defeat in a friendly at Hampden in March 2006. Tranquillo Barnetta and Daniel Gygax both scoring in the first half, with Kenny Miller pulling a goal back for Scotland only for Ricardo Cabanas to restore to the two goal lead.
Prior to Euro 96, many of us will remember facing the Swiss a few years earlier during World Cup 94 qualifying. Not that it’s a good memory, since we lost 3-1 in Switzerland in September 1992 in a game I distinctly remember Richard Gough jumping up and catching the ball to prevent the Swiss getting through on goal!
The rest of the game played out with Adrian Knup giving the hosts the lead only for Ally McCoist to cancel that out. But with twenty minutes left, Knup got on the scoresheet again and Georges Bregy sealed it with a 3-1 win.
A year later the home game, played at Pittodrie due to upgrade work at Hampden, saw John Collins’ opener cancelled out by a Georges Bregy penalty. World Cup 94 was, of course, the only tournament we didn’t qualify for in the 1990s.
We played the Swiss quite a few times in the 90s because we had also faced them in qualifying for Euro 92. October 1990 saw us win 2-1 at Hampden courtesy of a John Robertson penalty and a goal from Gary McAllister, whilst Adrian Knup also got a goal from the penalty spot.
The game in Switzerland in September 1991 finished 2-2, but that was after Scotland had gone 2-0 down in the first half. Stephane Chapuisat and Heinz Hermann with the goals for the hosts before Gordon Durie and Ally McCoist pulled us back into it in the second half.
Switzerland record
Euro 84 qualifying had a similar sounding game at Hampden in March 1983. Andre Egil opening the scoring for the visitors in the first half and Heinz Hermann doubling their lead after an hour, only for John Wark and Charlie Nicholas to rescue a point for Scotland.
By that point though we had already lost the away game 2-0 in November 1982. Claudio Sulser and Andre Egil with the goals.
The first time the sides met competitively was in World Cup 58 qualifying, with Scotland winning both games against the team who had hosted the World Cup in 1954. Both games in qualifying came in 1957, with the away game in May being a 2-1 win courtesy of Jackie Mudie and Bobby Collins reversing the opener from Roger Vonlanthen.
Then the game in November finished 3-2 to Scotland. Archie Robertson’s opener was cancelled out by Ferdinando Riva, before Jackie Mudie and Alex Scott scored in the second half, with Marcel Vonlanden reducing the deficit late on.
No footage of our first meeting back in May 1931 as Scotland visited Geneva and came back with a 3-2 victory. Albert Buche and Max Fauguel with the goals for the hosts, whilst William Gillespie Boyd, Andrew Love and Jame Easson got Scotland’s goals.
There was then a 3-1 victory in May 1946 as Europe took some more steps to actually playing football against each other again. George Aeby scored in the first minute for the visitors, but Billy Liddell scored twice and Jimmy Delaney got Scotland’s third. Initially this was an unofficial match, but it was later considered official which means this game was actually the first official substitution for Scotland – George Young coming on for William Campbell!
No footage of the other friendlies that we’ve played either unfortunately, so a quick run through of those.
In May 1948, the Swiss got their first win against Scotland in a 2-1 victory. Jacques Fatton and Rene Mallard with their goals, Leslie H Johnston with ours. In April 1950, we won 3-1. Allan Brown, Bobby Campbell and Willie Bauld with our goals, Charles Antenen with theirs. In June 1973, we lost 1-0, Walter Mundschin with their goal. And in April 1976, we won 1-0, Willie Pettigrew with our goal.
Bringing this up to present day, Switzerland qualified for Euro 2024 by finishing second in their group behind Romania. They won 5-0 away to Belarus, 3-0 at home to Israel and 2-1 away to Andorra before drawing 2-2 at home with Romania and 2-2 away to Kosovo. They then beat Andorra 3-0 at home, drew 3-3 at home with Belarus, 1-1 away to Israel and 1-1 at home with Kosovo, and lost 1-0 away to Romania in the final group game that didn’t really matter anyway.
But let’s see the one where the Swiss lost, as we want that today!
In warmup matches earlier this year, they drew 0-0 away to Denmark and won 1-0 in Ireland in March, whilst in June they won 4-0 at home to Estonia and drew 1-1 at home with Austria. And we’ll look at the most recent on here because at least they didn’t win.
Of course, the most recent match they played was on Saturday, but we already covered their 3-1 win over Hungary.
This is Switzerland’s third Euros in a row, having made the last sixteen of Euro 2016 where they lost to Poland on penalties having come second in their group after beating Albania and drawing with both Romania and France.
Worth watching this just for Shaqiri’s goal to be honest!
They then reached the quarter finals of Euro 2020 where they lost to Spain on penalties having beaten France on penalties in the last sixteen, which they reached by coming third in their group after drawing with Wales, losing to Italy and beating Turkey.
Given Switzerland have also qualified for the last five world cups in a row, they haven’t actually missed a tournament since the Euros in 2012. And in all but one of those five world cups they’ve made the last sixteen, the outlier being 2010, so they are very consistent at getting out of the group. Even once there they are difficult to beat – exiting on penalties in 2006, by a single goal after extra time in 2014, by a single goal in regular time in 2018…
Oh, and getting pumped 6-1 by Portugal in Qatar. This is the outlier here though, and only happens when you don’t play Cristiano Ronaldo.
It wasn’t always that way though. The other three times they qualified for the Euros, they went out in the group stage. In 1996 when we met they finished bottom with a draw against England and defeats to the Netherlands and of course Scotland. In 2004 they had a similar record where they drew with Croatia but lost to both England and France. They beat Portugal in 2008 on home soil, but having already lost to Czech Republic and Turkey they finished bottom of the group again.
We haven’t won a tournament match since the last time we faced the Swiss. In the seven games we’ve played since then, we’ve lost to Brazil, Morocco, Czechia, Croatia and Germany, and drawn with Norway and England. We’ve only won one other Euros game, that being the win over the CIS at Euro 92. Today would be a great time to change that script. Win tonight and we’re right back in this group.