England head into the quarterfinal against Switzerland under pressure after yet another dire performance.
- Who: England vs Switzerland
- What: Euro 2024 quarterfinals
- Where: Dusseldorf Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany
- When: 6pm local time (16:00 GMT) kickoff on Saturday, July 6
- How to follow: Al Jazeera will have live text commentary, including three hours of build-up coverage.
England were seconds away from an embarrassing Euro 2024 elimination in the round of 16 against Slovakia before a stoppage-time overhead kick by Jude Bellingham forced the game into extra time.
Captain Harry Kane sealed their 2-1 comeback win with a header to send England through, but, despite the dramatic victory, questions were again raised over the team’s poor performance and manager Gareth Southgate’s tactics.
England arrived in Germany as one of the favourites thanks to a richly talented squad that includes the Bundesliga’s top goalscorer in Kane, Real Madrid star Bellingham and Phil Foden, who was the English Premier League’s player of the year last season.
However, they are just one of a number of fancied sides and their prospects have diminished following their poor displays in the tournament to date.
Ahead of Saturday’s quarterfinals, midfielder Phil Foden said he “feels sorry” for under-fire manager Southgate, adding that “the players have got to take some of the blame”.
Switzerland look to follow Italian job with England upset
Despite the sluggish display in Germany, England are unbeaten in their last 11 Euros matches, winning seven, and they last tasted defeat against Iceland in 2016. But they have a 50 percent win record from six previous quarterfinals, losing two of the last three on penalties, which is how they were also defeated by the Italians in the Euro 2022 final.
Switzerland on the other hand look confident and organised – and they knocked out the holders Italy in the last round.
The Swiss are playing in only their second Euro quarterfinal, having lost on penalties to Spain in 2020, but – following their Italian job in the last round – look in the mood to pull off another upset.
Even though they have won only three of their 27 past meetings with England – the last was a 2-1 success in Basel in 1981 – coach Murat Yakin has faith in his team.
“We played against Germany – we were good. We played against Italy, also a big team, and why can’t we beat England?” Yakin said. “We’re in a good mood now. Let’s see, it’s a good challenge and my team is ready to have this big fight against England.”
The winner of this quarterfinal will face either Netherlands or Turkey in the semifinals in Dortmund.
FIFA ranking:
England (5), Switzerland (19)
Head-to-head record:
27 games – 18 wins for England, 3 for Switzerland, 6 draws
Last five matches:
England: W D D W L
Switzerland: W D D W D