The Swiss, bottom of Group B before Saturday's matches, opened the scoring in the 21st minute thanks to a header from Manuel Akanji from a corner, then Spain equalized on the return from the locker room by Jordi Alba (55th), but the Nati immediately responded with another goal from a corner concluded by Breel Embolo and touched by Eric Garcia (58th), who ended up showering the Iberian ardor.
Luis Enrique tried to turn his attack upside down in the 63rd minute to grab at least a draw, but nothing worked: despite the entry into play of youngsters Nico Williams and Yeremi Pino on the wings in place of Ferran Torres and Pablo Sarabia, and that of Borja Iglesias in place of Marco Asensio as centre-forward, Spain failed to overcome the Yann Sommer wall.
With this setback, the first since the start of the group stage of this League of Nations, the Spaniards fall back to second place in group 2, two points behind the Portuguese leaders.
For Switzerland, it is a second prestigious victory in a row, after their 1-0 victory against Portugal in Geneva on June 12.
It is also the first victory in its history on Spanish soil.
The Swiss even almost widened the gap in the 62nd, on an exit badly negotiated by Unai Simon, a symptom of the feverishness of his team less than two months before the start of the World Cup in Qatar (November 20 - December 18).
And Spain, in turn, believed to see the light again on this hazardous back pass from Renato Steffen who almost entered his own goal, before going out for a corner.
Luis Enrique, in addition to adjusting the concerns raised on Saturday evening, will have to monitor the state of health of Yeremi Pino, who finished the match with a serious limp.
It is now Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates who now stand on the road to Spain: only one of these two big nations in world football will qualify for the "Final Four" of the League of Nations.
La Roja had already disputed that of last year: it had taken its revenge by eliminating the very fresh Italian European champions in the semi-final, before yielding against France in the final.
© 2022 AFP