Hosts Switzerland suffer opening defeat to Czech Republic
Saturday, 07 Jun 2008 19:46
Substitute Vaclav Sverkos celebrates his winner with Marek Jankulovski
Hosts Switzerland got off to a poor start to Euro 2008 after they lost 1-0 to Czech Republic in Basle this afternoon.
Substitute Vaclav Sverkos swept home the winner for Czech Republic after 70 minutes, but there were a number of other good chances in a surprisingly open and enjoyable game.
Switzerland had an excellent chance to take the lead after three minutes when Czech Republic gave the ball away cheaply in midfield and the home side found themselves three on three heading towards the Czech goal.
Experienced striker Alexander Frei decided to shoot from 25 yards when he had players on either side of him in far better positions. Petr Cech in the Czech Republic goal saved comfortably from Frei.
With the support of their home crowd and the Czech Republic's inability to keep hold of the ball, the Swiss grew in confidence and enjoyed more of the possession. But the hosts lacked the cutting edge upfront and their next best effort came from anther long range Frei effort which Cech fisted away.
Switzerland's all time top-scorer Frei was then forced to go off with an achilles injury and in his place came on Hakan Yakin, who brought with him some quality on the ball which Switzerland were lacking.
Yakin had two good chances to give Switzerland the lead. He first had a good free-kick from 20 yards go over the bar and then the midfielder had a golden chance to score when he headed wide from inside the box.
The Czechs were a shadow of the team we had seen in Euro 2004 when they reached the semi-finals. But they claimed a surprise winner when Sverkos stole in behind the Swiss defence and calmly slotted into the bottom right hand corner.
Switzerland poured forward in the final few minutes and they almost got a deserved equaliser, but Johan Vonlanthen's effort came crashing back of the Czech Republic post.
Sarwar Alam