Swiss triumph over powerful Dutch
Switzerland have beaten The Netherlands 2-1 in a confidence-boosting friendly in Geneva thanks to two goals from Tranquillo Barnetta.
It is the first time the Swiss have beaten a top-ten team in 14 years and is just what the home side needed ten months ahead of Euro 2008, which they are co-hosting with neighbouring Austria.
“We’ve finally managed to defeat one of the top teams in Europe or even the world. We’ve waited for this for a long time,” said Swiss coach Köbi Kuhn.
Switzerland’s previous biggest scalp was a 1-0 win over Italy in 1993.
“It was important for me that we continued to prove ourselves. We played very well against Argentina [in June] but that would have counted for nothing had it all gone wrong today.”
He added: “The boys confirmed today that they can hold their own against the big teams and they won the hearts of the fans.”
The Swiss got off to a dream start in the Stade de Genève when Johan Vonlanthen was pulled down after nine minutes by Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, who was standing in for an injured Edwin van der Sar.
Tranquillo Barnetta, midfielder for German team Bayer Leverkusen, confidently converted the penalty – in marked contrast to Switzerland’s dismal penalty performance during the 2006 World Cup when they became the first country to fail to score a single penalty in a shoot-out.
After the goal, the Swiss – currently 45th in the Fifa world rankings, just behind Ghana and Iran – settled down, played confident football and went into half-time 1-0 up.
Memorable victory
The Dutch, seventh in the world rankings, came back out looking more urgent, but in the 51st minute Barnetta silenced the Dutch brass band in the crowd for the second time. Picking up a loose ball in the box, the 22-year-old coolly slotted it with his left foot past an advancing Stekelenburg.
But busy celebrating going 2-0 up, the Swiss players suddenly found their lead halved: Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt had headed the ball in from a cross within 30 seconds of the re-start.
This goal shook the Swiss and reinvigorated the Dutch. Nevertheless the home team weathered a tough 15 minutes and when Barnetta was replaced in the 74th minute the Swiss had regained control of the match.
Indeed in the 82nd minute Hakan Yakin missed the easiest chance in the match to put the Swiss 3-1 up and seal a memorable victory.
But despite a few last-minute scares, Switzerland pulled together and celebrated a well-deserved win after a top-quality match.
Good record
It was the first time the two teams had met since the group stage at the 1996 European Championship in England, a game the Netherlands won 2-0.
Despite that loss, the balance sheet against the Oranje doesn’t look bad: of 31 meetings, the Swiss have won 14 and lost 15.
The most recent Swiss victory was in 1991, when goals from Angelo Elia and Lucien Favre resulted in a 2-1 win.
The Dutch, third in Group G of Euro 2008 with 14 points from six matches, have won four of their last five matches.
The Swiss, who as hosts automatically qualify for Euro 2008, had before Wednesday won just one of their four friendlies in 2007, beating Jamaica 2-0. They drew 1-1 with Argentina and lost 3-1 to both Colombia and Germany.
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Switzerland have won five out of ten friendly matches since the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
They lost to Brazil (1-2), Germany (1-3), Austria (1-2) and Colombia (1-3).
They beat Jamaica (2-0), Liechtenstein (3-0), Costa Rica (2-0), Venezuela (1-0) and The Netherlands (2-1).
They drew against Argentina (1-1).
Switzerland will take part in a four-nation tournament, with games against Chile (September 7), Japan (September 11) and Austria (October 13 in Zurich).
The qualifying phase of the tournament began in autumn 2006 and will end on November 21, 2007. Co-hosts Austria and Switzerland will qualify automatically.
The winners and runners-up in the seven qualifying groups – 16 teams – will go through to the Euro 2008 final round. A draw will take place in Lucerne on December 2, 2007 to decide the composition of the groups for the finals.
15 of the 31 Euro 2008 matches will be played in Switzerland and 16 in Austria. Switzerland will play the opening match of the tournament at Basel’s St Jakob’s Park on June 7, 2008. The final will be in Vienna on June 29.
Swiss stadiums: Zurich – Letzigrund (30,000 seats); Basel – St Jakob’s Park (40,000); Bern – Stade de Suisse (30,000); Geneva – Stade de Genève (30,000 seats).
Switzerland: Fabio Coltorti, Philipp Degen (Stephan Lichtsteiner, 69), Ludovic Magnin, Philippe Senderos (Ricardo Cabanas, 88), Steve Von Bergen, Tranquillo Barnetta (Christoph Spycher, 74), Fernandes Gelson (Benjamin Huggel, 67), Gokhan Inler, Xavier Margairaz, Blaise Nkufo (Marco Streller, 56), Johan Vonlanthen.
Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg, Wilfred Bouma, Urby Emanuelson, Johnny Heitinga, Kew Jaliens (Khalid Boulahrouz, 46), Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Demy de Zeeuw, Wesley Sneijder (Clarence Seedorf, 56), Rafael van der Vaart (Ryan Babel, 46), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Dirk Kuyt, 46), Robin van Persie.
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