‘Nightmare fate’ for defending champion?: Italians fear the Swiss national team

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Switzerland has officially qualified for the European Championships in Germany since Saturday evening. Although bland. But you are here. Yet Murat Yakin’s men still have a lot to do on Tuesday in the last qualifying match against Romania (8:45 p.m.). Because if Switzerland wants to win the group, it must win in Bucharest.

The loser ends up in pot four

The question of who will win the group is relevant. Because she directly decides on the distribution of the lottery pots for the tournament in the summer. The calculation is simple: the winner of Swiss Group I ends up in drawing pot two, together with countries such as Austria and Denmark. And second in the fourth and final pot, together with the winners of the Nations League play-offs.

The Romanians have the advantage. They have a two-point lead going into the final matchday. This means: The national team must win if it does not want to participate in the final European Championship draw for the first time since the 2004 final.

Qualifications are crucial

Although Switzerland ranks 14th in the world, it is in danger of fourth place. This is because only the naked performances in the qualifying campaign count towards the distribution of the draw pots. And nothing else. In this area, the national team has left a lot of room for improvement in recent months. Only four wins (two of them against Andorra) in nine matches are not enough compared to other qualified countries.

UEFA divides the countries into draw pots one to four based on the following criteria: First and foremost, the final position in qualifying decides. Then the number of points achieved. Then the goal difference, followed by the number of goals scored, the number of away goals scored and the number of wins. With a win over Romania – no matter how high – the national team would be in pot two. With any other result, pot four awaits.

Italians tremble for Switzerland

Switzerland would likely have a fantastic group waiting for them if they are placed in pot four next summer. But Nati coach Murat Yakin (49) is not afraid of that. At the PK, he said before the match in Bucharest: “I think the opponents should worry about not running into us!”

And maybe he’s even right about that. Because other countries are actually afraid of us. For example, the Italians secured European Championship qualification in a difficult match against Ukraine on Monday evening and – depending on the results from the other groups – will end up in pot three or four.

The “Gazzetta dello Sport” is now investigating the defending champion’s possible European Championship opponents. And promptly declares the Nati a “nightmare opponent” from pot four. «The most terrible group if Italy remains in pot three? France, Denmark and Switzerland,” the newspaper writes. Admittedly, such a group would probably cause unrest in this country as well.

The draw will take place on Saturday, December 2 at 6 p.m. at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. (sbe)

Source : Blick