Double goal scorer Xherdan Shaqiri has nourished the hopes of Switzerland for a place in the round of 16 at the European Football Championship and finally gave Turkey the tournament knockout.
The former Munich defeated with the Confederates the Turks, who were frenetically cheered on by around 20,000 fans, on Sunday in Baku, deservedly 3-1 (2-0).
The former Frankfurt Haris Seferovic brought the greatly improved Switzerland in the lead in the 6th minute, before Shaqiri (26./68.) Scored twice worth seeing. Irfan Can Kahveci (62nd) scored the first goal for Turkey at this European Championship, but could not prevent the embarrassing exit of the semi-final participant from 2008 as the bottom of the group without points. The Swiss have four points and can still advance as one of the four best third in the group.
The Turks started aggressively in the group final. Unlike in the games against Italy (0: 3) and Wales (0: 2), the path to the goal was consistently sought from the start. After just four minutes, Kaan Ayhan forced the Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who became a father for the second time last Wednesday, to make a first brilliant save. "It was very emotional for me and of course also very stressful," the Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper reported after the birth of his daughter.
In the middle of the first urge phase of the team of coach Senol Günes, the leading goal of the Confederates burst into it. Seferovic overcame Ugurcan Çakir with a placed low shot and then cheered exuberantly for his first ever European Championship goal. However, Turkey did not let that bother them and remained the more active team. With an oblique shot by Mert Müldür (15th), Sommer had to stretch hard again to prevent a goal. The Swiss were much more effective, because the second shot on goal was also on. Shaqiri hit the corner with a wonderful flick from around 20 meters. Only 120 seconds later, the former Bayern professional had the decision on his feet, but failed after fine preparatory work by Seferovic on the brilliant parrying Cakir.After that, the team of coach Vladimir Petkovic withdrew even further and largely left the initiative to the opponent. That almost took revenge, but Müldür failed three times before the break because of the first-class summer.
After the change, the Swiss became a bit more agile again and couldn't be pushed back so far into their own half. Breel Embolo, Shaqiri and Seferovic gave good opportunities to make it 3-0. And suddenly the Turks struck: Kahveci took his measure from about 20 meters and didn't give summer a chance. Now there was real fire in the game, but the outcome was only briefly uncertain. Only six minutes after the connection it was Shaqiri again who restored the old gap. Once again, the Turkish defense, which had conceded only three goals in ten qualifying matches for the EURO and kept a clean sheet eight times, was not up to scratch.
Inspired by the third trick, Switzerland controlled the game in the final phase. Granit Xhaka hit the post with a free kick. The Turks submitted to the defeat and started their journey home prematurely as big tournament losers.