GHANA – SWITZERLAND | Thursday 11:00 am
As happened in the past with Sweden, Switzerland will forever evoke bad memories for footballing Italy. It was the Swiss, exactly one year ago, who sent us out of the World Cup for the second time in a row. Murat Yakin’s selection, already protagonist of a good European Championship, managed to take advantage of Mancini’s Azzurri’s missteps during the qualifying campaign and with a bit of luck – the two penalties missed by the specialist Jorginho – came first in the group, forcing the European champions to go through the hell of the play-offs (then sensationally lost to North Macedonia). Having found themselves in a tough enough group, the Swiss will need to pull off a feat to snatch one of the two passes for the knockout phase of Qatar 2022: the first place is booked by Brazil; then there is Serbia, a national team that can rely on players of absolute talent such as Milinkovic-Savic and Vlahovic, and finally they will have to reckon with an African selection that is always very insidious, such as Cameroon.
In the last Nations League, Switzerland avoided relegation despite a disastrous start: in the return matches they strung together three wins in a row against Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic, and remained in the A League. Yakin and his team are already in the Middle East and in the preparation friendly they will face Ghana, who qualified almost as a surprise by ousting the better-ranked Nigeria thanks to the away goals rule. Much less competitive than in 2010, when they reached the quarter-finals, Otto Addo’s men were drawn in a complicated group with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea.
A jubilation by Ghana players
The Prediction
Ghana have won five of their last six matches conceding only three goals, all in last September’s friendly against Brazil. This is a national team perhaps lacking in talent but very organised. Switzerland, however, can draw on their greater international experience and are slight favourites in this test match. The total number of goals should be less than four.
The probable line-ups of Ghana-Switzerland
- GHANA (4-2-3-1): Ati-Zigi; Lamptey, Salisu, Djiku, Baba Rahman; Partey, Idrissu; J. Ayew, Kudus, Sulemana; I. Williams.
- SWITZERLAND (4-3-3): Sommer; Widmer, Akanji, Elvedi, Rodriguez; Freuler, Xhaka, Sow; Shaqiri, Seferovic, Okafor.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 0-1
