Craig King’s Italy v Switzerland preview: Swiss must be ruthless to get anything in Rome
Our Matchday Squad journalist will be covering Switzerland throughout Euro 2020
They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it seems like the foundations for Switzerland’s potential progression from Group A won’t be either. Vladimir Petkovic and his side will make the 3119km journey from the scene of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Wales in Baku to the Eternal City to face Italy with the feeling that they missed a golden opportunity to lay down a marker in their opener.
Die Nati played well in that match but their inability to kill off the game was costly. Xherdan Shaqiri and Haris Seferovic were largely off the pace. More positively though, goalscorer Breel Embolo delivered his best-ever national team performance.
Italy will provide daunting opposition but Switzerland can still more than match up to their hosts and are unlikely to change their setup. They’ll be hoping for more of the same from Embolo, however, they also need more from star man Shaqiri and an inefficient Seferovic who may be replaced by Mario Gavranovic.
Most importantly, Switzerland must find their ruthlessness in front of goal. If all of that can happen then they could take a point. Unfortunately, I can only see a narrow defeat to the group leaders. 2-1 to Italy.
