Swiss edge five-goal thriller

Classic encounter marred by crowd chants and scuffles

AS IN 2018, Switzerland joined Brazil in the last 16 of the World Cup at the expense of Serbia. In a familiar trend where a game involving the Balkan nation takes place their campaign ended with a FIFA call over the tannoy of Doha’s Stadium 974 for fans to cease ‘discriminatory chants and gestures.’

The first half brought four goals, swinging one way then the other before the scoring stopped with Remo Freuler’s winner early in the second half. From that point on Serbia needed two more to progress to the last. Even one would have done Cameroon a favour. Holding on comfortably, Murat Yakin’s Switzerland claimed second place behind Brazil and face a last-16 clash with Portugal.

Serbia, for their part, have now failed to win any of their last five games at the World Cup.

An engrossing, ill-tempered affair brought nine yellow cards, the highest tally in a World Cup game since the 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands. The needle between the two sides was persistent, fuelled by recent history and bitter ethnic territorial disputes.

The dislike Serbian fans have for Xherdan Shaqiri is visceral. It’s not only the 90th minute goal he scored to knock them out of the 2018 World Cup which brings the red mist down.

The Chicago Fire striker has never hidden his Kosovar heritage. A former province of Yugoslavia with an Albanian majority, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. While everywhere else recognises their independence Belgrade refuses to do so.

Shaqiri joined Ronaldo and Messi as the only players to have scored in the last three World Cups when a powerful left foot off the inside leg of the hapless Strahinja Pavlovic deceived keeper Vanja Malinkovic-Savic and took the striker’s total number of World Cup goals to an impressive five.

When he scored four years ago he earned a fine from FIFA for ‘political provocation’ after making the two-headed eagle sign, a reference to the flag of Albania. This time he settled for running straight to the Serbia fans in the corner, turning to show the name on the back of his shirt. Enraged fans responded by pelting the goalscorer with bottles of water. In a game which crackled from end to end at a furious pace, two goals in nine minutes turned the game on its head. For a time Dragan Stoijkovic’s team held their fate in their own hands.

Filip Kostic won possession on the halfway line, surged forward and picked out the run of Aleksandar Mitrovic. A superb header from the Fulham striker made it three in six World Cup games and levelled the score. Mitrovic is now the second Serbian to score in two World Cups. The other is his current coach, Stojkovic.

It’s not just Mitrovic. Dusan Vlahovic has scored ten goals in 19 appearances for Serbia. And the Werder Bremen striker made it seven in ten starts when he capitalised on a poor attempt by Freuler to deal with a through ball from the Dusan Tadic.

Slashing a low strike into the bottom corner past Gregor Kobel the celebrations of the Serbian supporters reflected a joyous change of circumstance.

Attacking isn’t really Serbia’s problem. After shipping three to Cameroon on Monday an inability to keep the door shut is why Switzerland are now heading for the last 16. As Cameroon showed when they came back from 3-1 down, this Serbia team are never really a safe bet.

Two goals either side of half-time offered a safety blanket for

Switzerland. The impressive Breel Embolo made it two in three games when he slotted in a low cross from Silvan Widmer.

The second half started in the same vein when the Swiss scored again. A delightful Ruben Vargas backheel showed outstanding awareness, the ball landing in the path of Freuler. At fault for Serbia’s second, the defensive midfielder made amends by ramming the ball into the net for 3-2.

FIFA’s second half tannoy announcement followed a confrontation between Swiss goalscorer Embolo and Serbia players.

Embolo had to be separated from his opponents by his own players after Serbia’s Sergej MilinkovicSavic waved his finger in the Swiss player’s face. Shortly afterwards the stadium announcer urged the crowd to ‘stop all discriminatory chants and gestures’.