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The Swiss have qualified for three European Championship tournaments, all since the expansion of the tournament from 8 to 16 teams in 1996. However, their record once they have qualified isn’t impressive; they have yet to win a game, finishing bottom of the group on both occasions. Therefore hopes will be high that they can at least improve on that record when they co-host the tournament this summer. Switzerland’s failed to qualify for any European Championship until 1996 although they have reached the quarter final of the World Cup on three separate occasions. However, their golden period in the 1930’s and 1950’s didn’t coincide with the conception of the European tournament, which didn’t happen until 1960. Switzerland made it through to the World Cup quarter finals in both 1934 and 1938, and also repeated the feat when hosting the tournament in 1954. The nearest Switzerland came to qualifying for the European Championship was finishing on three different occasions in second in their qualifying group in 1972, 1984 and 1992, when the qualification groups were smaller as a result of fewer participating nations. Switzerland finally made it to the tournament in 1996, following up their qualification for USA 1994, their first qualification for a major tournament since 1966. However, they had the misfortune to be drawn into Group A along with England (the hosts), Scotland and Holland. Scheduled to meet England at Wembley in the first game of the tournament they were widely expected to pose little danger to an England win to kick-off their tournament in convincing style. Despite conceding an early goal in front of a packed Wembley to Alan Shearer they kept themselves in the game and struck late on through a penalty from Kubilay Turkyilmaz to level at 1-1. They were no match for Holland in the next match, when the Dutch turned in their best performance of the tournament, overcoming the Swiss threat thanks to second half goals from Jordi Cryuff and Dennis Bergkamp. Needing a win in the final game against the Scots, who also had one point, both had a chance of picking up second and qualifying for the quarter finals if the English beat the Dutch. Whilst England kept up their side of the bargain the Swiss couldn’t, and an Ally McCoist goal put Scotland in the driving seat. However, a late goal from the Dutch to make it 4-1 at Wembley put them through despite the defeat on goal difference, rendering the game between Scotland and Switzerland meaningless. The qualification for Euro 2000 was disappointing after they finished in third in Group A behind Italy and Denmark. However, Switzerland were back for Euro 2004 and once again found themselves in England’s group, along with France and Croatia. Needing a win to give themselves any chance of qualification against Croatia, in their first game they drew 0-0 in Leiria. They were no match for England in the second game Wayne Rooney grabbing a brace and Steven Gerrard scoring another to make it 3-0. With only 1 point on the board after the first two games, Switzerland needed to pull off a shock against France in their final group match. Zidane put the French into the lead on 20 minutes and although current Austria Salzburg striker Johan Vonlanthen equalised 6 minutes later late goals from Thierry Henry eased the French through and condemned Switzerland to bottom place in the group. After qualifying for the round of 16 two seasons at the World Cup in Germany picking up 7 points after holding France to a 0-0 draw before beating both Togo and the South Korea 2-0 they met the Ukraine in the next round. A tense match of few chances finished 0-0 after 120 minutes but lost on penalties. The considerably improved performance at two seasons ago, combined with the co-hosting of the tournament, has meant that hopes are now high in Switzerland that the team can improve considerably on their previous performances at the European Championship. Posted by James on Monday, 12th May 2008 (Average rating 0 from 0 votes. Vote) (0 Comments) |