Never thought I'd say I'm relishing a midfield battle between Xhaka and Busquets, but here we are.

Xhaka gonna be out due to card accumulation sadly. He was so immense for Swiss against France so it'll be kinda sad watching the Swiss try to play long balls the way Xhaka does. They still have Rodriguez at least.

Ooof that's indeed a blow. Probably a fatal one for the Swiss.

Spain absolutely cannot deal with direct balls and crosses. Embolo and Seferović can certainly cause problems if they go the direct route.

Pau Torres and Laporte looked extremely poor dealing with those balls and Torres was brought on specifically to combat that kinds of balls as Eric Garcia is smaller and I assume worse in this area.

Spain are good defensively if you try and pass your way through the midfield, they are sharp on counter pressing and Busquets reads situations very well. Always feels like they have an extra player waiting to pick up the loose ball. If you can avoid all that and get balls in the box or over the top, immediate panic. If you can cause this danger, it also impacts Spain in possession as they begin to take less risks with the ball and therefore struggle to break opponents down.

For any of that to happen, they will have to deal with the quality they have, which is of course very hard.

Morata might be bit of a beta but he's the only reason for me to cheer for Spain

Joint top goalscorer for Spain in Euro tournaments. GOAT

No Xhaka no Chance

Very confident for this tie.

Switzerland knocking out France meant nothing to me as I still don't rate them.

But they DO have a good coach so can be up for a surprise.

I rate the Swiss attack kinda. Shaqiri, Embolo, Seferovic, Gavranovic are decent players. I like Embolo in particular, they are a solid team that can give trouble to anyone.

just bought a ticket for this one....75 euros


finally gonna see my homeboy Shaq score a banger right in front of my eyes...it's gonna happen. 100%

quote this post plz

Ill say this before the game, there is a saving grace with Switzerland. They do have Seferovic who I think at this point has proven he is a player to be feared by to any defense and Gavranovic seems to perform well for the national team. Both have proven to be clinical and have shown up when they are needed. They have good tools upfront and have decent enough service still even without Xhaka. Embolo too adds another worry since he is very strong and speedy so he can breach the likes of Laporte with Spain's highline. They will miss Xhaka's clarity in the midfield but they are very well led under Petkovic right now and Shaqiri is still there to deliver a decent pass or shot outside the box. They certainly play like a Balkan team and with the names of same of the players along with the manager I guess that answers itself so I wouldn't count them just quite out just yet.

One thing that has me less hopeful for Switzerland is how thoroughly we destroyed them in the group stages.

Spain plays more similar to Italy than to France, if the Swiss haven't figured out how to counter that, it will be easy for Spain.

On the other hand Spain's defense is always a risk so there is hope for the Swiss.

Comparing Spain to Italia is flattering on us given yes the attempt is to control the game but Italian possession in this tourney is positive and actually being done with with results after almost each 2 passes.

Here its predictable and reactive to the challenge itself as Switzerland will only be prevailed upon comfortably if we can have the midfield controlled as otherwise a surprise can approach at anytime given the disaster that is the Spanish backline.

Enrique has yet to also figure out his favourite system as if Italia do go through v Belgium and us this afternoon (likely) then expect a much easier challenge from Spain then Belgium.


But Enrique's Spain predictable as it is in play is unpredictable in its result usually so who knows.

Rest assured this isn't even as good as the one Conte's Italia totally outplayed in 2016 Euros.

^ I think that game was not an outlier, but rather a WTF.

Switzerland almost never get whipped 3-0. I can't recall any match in major tourneys or qualifiers that they got so completely outplayed and destroyed like Italy match.

Going back to 2006 when somoehow they bowed out of World Cup without conceding a goal, they've always been a competitive team and only usually lost matches by the odd goal in tightly contested games.

vs. Chile 2010
vs. Argentina 2014
vs. Poland 2016
vs. Sweden 2018

I'm gonna stick my neck out there and say that the norm will prevail today and not the exception.

It'll be a very competitive match where no team dominates or destroys the other.

I'm honestly so excited for this...Kind of hope it goes to penalties and they take the penos on the side of the goal where I'll be sitting. Will be a surreal experience !!

To be honest my assessment is purely based on that Italy match and their general performance in group A but I go on about Petkovic and that he is a very tactically astute manager so I do expect a surprise.


But Im happy to see you'll be there hope to catch you on cam too by chance. Be safe and take pics for us brother. Hope its a spectacle today for us.

I’m at a outside bar next to the stadium and honestly it feels like a home game for the Swiss.

So many of them have made the trip ….barely seen any Spaniards so far.

Very good atmosphere

The lack of Spanish crowd was predicted. We always were a fickle and cynical bunch when it comes to La Roja and more so since the golden gen evaporated and very little faith in this team is there so us getting the QF is quite a surprise along with some measure of luck.

Shame.

Scumbag scores

Si si, vamos, Morata Bachata!

own goal.

switzerland never had a chance without xhaka

Yeah this match had all the makings to be a snoozefest

Zagadka wrote:just bought a ticket for this one....75 euros


finally gonna see my homeboy Shaq score a banger right in front of my eyes...it's gonna happen. 100%

quote this post plz

My man

Imagine madridistas being ok with losing Ramos and Varane and signing Pau Torres

SHAAAAQIIIIRRRIIII!!!!

The spirit of XHAKA is alive!