The Swiss national team had an evening to forget in Leskovac and suffered their third defeat in their third Nations League match. Quotes from the Swiss camp.
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- The Swiss national team also loses its third Nations League game and remains bottom of the table after a 2-0 defeat in Serbia.
- The Nati stars talk about their mistakes after the game, but don't want to paint everything black. "It's not all bad just because we didn't win today," said Manuel Akanji.
- Coach Murat Yakin had to admit after the final whistle: "Serbia were cleverer today and defended better."
The Nations League match in Leskova actually started well from a Swiss perspective. The national team immediately took control of the game and were overwhelmingly superior in the first 20 minutes, but were unable to capitalize on their dominance and were subsequently punished for it. As the break approached, Nico Elvedi deflected a cross into his own box and thus initiated the third Swiss defeat in a row.
After Mitrovic made it 2-0 after an hour, Murat Yakin's team tried vehemently, but in vain, to score the equalizer. Breel Embolo's missed penalty in the 72nd minute was emblematic of the disappointing performance. What those directly involved had to say after the final whistle:
Manuel Akanji
"We started the game very well. Then mistakes crept into the game. We lost the duels and committed an incredible number of fouls around the penalty area. The Serbs are a big, physically strong team. Then it becomes dangerous at some point. (...) In the end, the 0:1 is an own goal, which is unfortunate. But it's also stupid. We're in a 3-on-2 situation and make a foul - we have to be cleverer and solve it better.
It's not easy to play on a pitch like this. It's one of the worst pitches I've ever played on. Nevertheless, we have to be better there. We played some good football in the first 20 minutes. But after that it slowed down.
We didn't start the Nations League the way we wanted to. But a lot of things went against us in the last match. Today it was definitely not enough, we have to look at that. But it's not all bad just because we didn't win today. We still have 3 games left and can still pick up 9 points. I believe in us."
Fabian Rieder
"We had our chances - from set pieces or penalties. (...) The final decision was missing. We have to create more chances. At the end of the day, we tried everything, but it wasn't to be. But it's also clear that it's not our standard to be left with zero points after three games.
It wasn't all bad today. We tried and went for it over the whole 90 minutes. They didn't have much more than the two goals, we were solid defensively. In the end, we lacked efficiency in both boxes.
We are all professionals who play at a high level. We'll do everything we can to put in a better performance in the next game and get the first three points. With the quality we have on the pitch, we have to get more points."
Gregor Kobel
"Manu Akanji tries to close down the short corner for me (before the second goal against). The most difficult thing for a goalkeeper is when the defender takes a long step and the striker can shoot through his legs. The problem was that I didn't see the ball at first. I'm missing half a second, so I can't get into the action at all.
We started relatively well. Then they defended high. I don't want to make excuses, but the pitch wasn't good at all. For both of them, but we tried to play out the back more. They then closed down the back six. You know how important Granit is for our build-up play. They were very close to him after the first 15 minutes."
Murat Yakin
"We dominate and then exactly what the Serbs were waiting for happens. We lost our patience a little bit and we provoked fouls in tackles. They cleverly exploited that with their set pieces. (...) They were cleverer today and defended better.
To fall behind like that just before half-time is annoying. You have to attack afterwards and they can concentrate on defending. They did that well today, but we still had our chances. We changed the system and brought in a lot of attacking players. A lot of things are going against us at the moment, which is annoying. But we'll get out of it.
We did very well for 40 minutes. One or two stupid defensive mistakes that led to set pieces. Nico and Silvan get yellow cards, there were two or three corners in a row - those are the moments they've been waiting for."
