Switzerland made a flying begin to their Euro 2024 marketing campaign with a commanding 3-1 win over a blunder-prone Hungary on Saturday, with first worldwide objectives for Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer, and Breel Embolo netting on his return from damage.
Chasing a spot within the knockout rounds of their sixth consecutive main match, Switzerland had been an aesthetic outfit, composed, organised and fast on the assault as a Hungary aspect billed because the match’s darkish horses made numerous errors and struggled to get into the sport.
In solely his second worldwide match, Duah fired the Swiss forward with a cool end after 12 minutes when he was put by means of by Aebischer, who doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time with an outstanding curling shot from outdoors the field after sloppy defending.
Hungary had been shell-shocked however improved within the second half, with Barnabás Varga squandering a transparent likelihood when he discovered himself in area however headed large of the publish.
He did discover the online within the 66th minute, nonetheless, crouching low to move residence Dominik Szoboszlai’s neat cross to spark a frantic effort to combat again which the Swiss fended off resolutely, responding with a flurry of probabilities of their very own.
Substitute Embolo sealed the win after one other Hungarian error in stoppage time, lifting the ball over the keeper to set off frenzied Swiss celebrations.
“I liken soccer to chess and at the moment we received our ways proper,” Swiss coach Murat Yakin mentioned.
“We targeted on benefiting from our energy and we made our opponents’ lives very onerous.”
Switzerland had been determined for a robust begin to the match after scraping by means of a weak group in a dismal qualifying marketing campaign fraught with late mishaps in video games.
Participant of the match Granit Xhaka carried out an important function within the victory, controlling the tempo of play, delivering pinpoint passes and twice coming near scoring late objectives.
Aebischer and Duah had been introduced again into the Switzerland aspect and Embolo was match once more after damage and their choice proved impressed, with Aebischer central to a number of assaults that uncovered the frailty of the Hungarian defence.
Hungary’s begin to their third successive European Championship was disappointing, with expectations excessive after a run of 14 video games unbeaten that ended solely just lately, and pleasure over Szoboszlai, who made his debut within the match because the youngest captain within the Euros at 23 years outdated.
Hungary play Germany and Switzerland tackle Scotland within the subsequent Group A matches on Wednesday.
“The primary half was very unhealthy … we had been too passive,” Hungary coach Marco Rossi mentioned, lamenting his aspect’s errors on the again.
“I’m not trying to level fingers. I’m the coach, so I take duty.”
“It is onerous to appropriate the type of errors that we made. Our gamers don’t make errors like this day by day,” he added.