Switzerland hold off Hungary fightback after Duah bursts on to the ...
For most of the second half, the cowbells clanked gleefully. After all the doubts about Switzerland, all the positive noises about Hungary, there had been something almost surreal about the ease with which Murat Yakin’s team dominated the first half. Hungary, having been oddly sluggish, were able to impose themselves enough after the break to at least cause Switzerland some anxiety. In truth, though, this was comfortable enough, a game in effect won by half-time and sealed by Breel Embolo’s late strike.
When Switzerland went out of the 2006 World Cup to Ukraine in this stadium on penalties after a 0-0 so dull, so entirely devoid of incident, that even now light waves continue to be sucked towards its centre, the sense was that Switzerland could have played for centuries without scoring. Ricardo Rodriguez, implausibly, was not involved that day, although the fact that the eternal ponytail of the Swiss back-line, making his 116th appearance, is still only 31 shows how time can slow down near a black hole of interest.
As it turned out, 18 years later, it took Switzerland just 13 minutes to score in a game that could hardly have been more different from that last-16 clash. Kwadwo Duah, making only his second appearance for the national side, had already created chaos with one smooth glide through the Hungarian midfield when he was slipped in by Michel Aebischer. He finished crisply but the Slovenian linesman, perhaps sceptical on the basis of that last-16 tie in 2006 that Switzerland could ever score in Cologne, raised his flag. VAR, though, showed at least two Hungarians playing the Ludogorets forward onside.
For Hungary, that had been the concern in the buildup. They may have conceded just seven goals in their eight qualifiers, but the friendly defeat to Ireland earlier in the month suggested their vulnerability in transition, which always seems a potential danger for coachessuch as Marco Rossi, who advocate relationism rather than positionism. It’s also a danger for any team as profoundly slow as Hungary – and if there’s any team unlikely to be put off by something moving at glacial pace, it’s Switzerland.
The fear was that Switzerland, who had reached the knockout stage of each of the last five major tournaments, might be over the hill. But they pressed with a focused energy, seemingly targeting the left wing-back, Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez. It was his weak pass that set Ruben Vargas clear after 20 minutes; on that occasion, Peter Gulacsi made the block.
But Switzerland were cutting through Hungary too regularly to be denied for long. The second came in the final minute of the half. Twice through-balls shredded Hungary and twice they seemed to have got away with it, only for Aebischer to gather just outside the box. An overlapping run by the ageless Rodriguez created space, allowing Aebsicher to jink inside before clipping a shot into the bottom corner for his first international goal. Both he and his Bologna teammate Dan Ndoye turned in first-half performances good enough to suggest Switzerland’s future might be as bright as their recent past.
The second half began with further Swiss control but gradually Hungary’s physicality began to hint at a route back into the game. The Ferencváros striker Barnabas Varga had already put one free header wide when he scrambled his way in front of his marker at the back post to nod in Dominik Szoboszlai’s cross 21 minutes after the break. If relationism can leave a side vulnerable to counters, this is the flipside: a goal from an overload created by the fluency the mindset allows.
In that final half hour there were signs of why so many had tipped Hungary as dark horses, of why there had been such scepticism about Switzerland. That may change the tone for the rest of the group, but even in that period there were plentiful openings for Switzerland, culminating in the late third for the substitute Embolo who has barely played for a year because of injury but lobbed calmly home after Willi Orban had dithered under a long clearance. This was not the Hungary that had been expected and, to their delight, neither was it the Swiss.
Guardian
