The game between Wales and Switzerland at the European Championship did not yield a winner on Saturday. In the Olympic Stadium in Baku, 31,000 spectators saw the game end in 1-1. Vladimir Petkovic’s team struck first a few minutes after the break, after which Wales forced a draw fifteen minutes before the end. In the final minutes, the first VAR check of the tournament ensured that the game did not end in 1-2. Switzerland has never beaten a British opponent at a European Championship or World Cup: two draws and three defeats in five matches.
The neutral spectator had a hard time during the first half. Wales, who made it to the semi-finals five years ago as a debutant at a European Championship, and Switzerland were unable to entertain in the first 45 minutes and the scoreless halftime score was therefore perfectly logical. In the first fifteen minutes, the teams alternated good phases and Wales had the best chance: Kieffer Moore headed the ball powerfully towards the roof of the goal, but goalkeeper Yann Sommer tapped the ball over the bar with style.
Switzerland’s answer was nice: Fabian Schär aimed the ball behind the standing leg after a low corner from Xherdan Shaqiri, but goalkeeper Danny Ward reacted well by taking the ball out of the goal with his foot. Switzerland in particular tried to get the scoreboard moving, especially after crosses from Ricardo Rodríguez or Kevin Mbabu, but Petkovic’s team struggled to break through the Welsh wall or missed two good opportunities in the person of Haris Seferovic.
Switzerland, which won each of the six international matches prior to the European Championship, took the lead in Baku four minutes after the break. Embolo first encountered Ward after an impressive rush, but the attacker heads the ball against the ropes from the ensuing corner: 0-1. Not much later, the second goal almost came. Once again Embolo broke through the Welsh defense with some fine individual play, but Kevin Mbabu misplaced the ball when he received it from his team-mate.
Embolo remained the most dangerous player on the field: after about 65 minutes he curled the ball just wide of Ward’s goal. Fifteen minutes before the end, Wales, where Gareth Bale played a fairly invisible role, cleared the deficit from scratch. A corner was taken shortly, after which Moore headed the ball from a cross by Josef Morell into the left corner: 1-1. Mario Gavranovic seemed to take care of the 1-2 a minute after his substitute for Seferovic, but the first VAR check of the tournament prevented the attacker from playing a hero.
Switzerland looked emphatically for a second goal in the final phase and the extra time of five minutes, but without result. This time Ward had an answer to Embolo’s header and a cracked effort by Gavranovic could be tapped just wide by a stretching Ward. However, the linesman flagged for offside.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Wales | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Turkey | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
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