War of words as Swiss battle Colombia

In a championship with football heavyweights like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and other big teams, Colombia and Switzerland were expected to crash out in the early rounds, but both are in the semi-final and one of the two will eventually make it to the final.

Switzerland Coach, Dany Ryser, attributed their run to team work. “I’ve been very clear with my players: if we keep working as a team like we have done up to now then anything’s possible. Both Colombia and ourselves go into this semi-final suffering fatigue and with players suspended, so whoever’s morale is highest and is in the best mental state will win. Footballing and tactical ability are secondary at this stage,” Ryser told FIFA.com

The captain of the Colombian team, Juan Saiz, is happy that they have achieved their goal, which is getting to the semi-final. “Our goal before we came to Nigeria was to reach the semi-finals. We knew that should we achieve that, then anything could happen. Now that we’re there, we’ve got a tough game against Switzerland. But we do have one thing that could help us win: we really want to be crowned champions!”

Surprise packages

But despite their modesty, the two worked hard to get to this level, and they deserved to be in the semi-final. They fought their toughest battle in the quarter-final where Switzerland defeated Italy and Colombia defeated Turkey.

Though there are a number of injuries and suspension, Colombia head into the fixture with high morale, having engineered last-gasp escapes in their previous games against Argentina and Turkey. Trailing by a goal with just three minutes on the clock versus La Albiceleste in the Round of 16, Los Cafeteros somehow grabbed two late goals to win 3-2. Against Turkey, meanwhile, Ramiro Viafara’s young charges notched a leveller with the final kick of injury time and went on to progress via a penalty shoot-out. The Colombians are thus ideally placed to improve on their best-ever finish at this competition, fourth place at Finland 2003, but will have to face Switzerland without suspended duo Fabian Castillo and Daniel Catano.

Tournament debutants

Switzerland, for their part, have already left the likes of Brazil, Germany and Italy trailing in their wake and will see no reason why they cannot continue their impressive run on African soil. A win for the Swiss would better their nation’s highest-ever finish at a FIFA competition, fourth spot at the Olympic Football Tournament Paris 1924, though coach Dany Ryser must find a way to replace key players in captain Frederic Veseli and midfield maestro Pajtim Kasami.

The statistics

According to FIFA, the statistics favour the European side.