Spain-Switzerland is a match valid for the quarter-finals of the European Under-21 Championship and is played on Saturday at 21:00: news, formations and predictions.
This is the quarter-final that should have featured Paolo Nicolato’s Italy, who threw away qualification in a reckless manner by losing on the final day to Norway. At the same time, Switzerland were swamped with goals by France, but won thanks to the extra points scored in the direct clashes with the Azzurrini and the Scandinavians.
The Swiss, despite the two defeats against Italy (2-3) and France (1-4), find themselves among the first eight of the Under-21 European Championship: the decisive victory was a comeback on the first day of the group stage against Norway. The selection led by Patrick Rahmen showed both strengths and weaknesses in these three matches: they played openly against superior teams, always finding the way of the goal – the young centre forward Amdouni, who wore the Basel jersey in the last season, was the star player – but revealing serious gaps in defence: Switzerland’s defence was the worst in the group, with eight goals conceded in three matches. It goes without saying that the chances of achieving another feat against strong Spain are very slim.
An unequal clash
La Rojita, who are chasing their sixth continental triumph (the last one was in 2019), won their group match as predicted, but not without a few worries (they came first thanks to the better goal difference).
Swiss players
In the direct clash for first place with Ukraine, Santi Denia’s men found the decisive goal at the last gasp: until the 90th minute Spain were losing 2-1, a result that would have allowed the Ukrainians to qualify for the quarters as first. But as soon as the selector sent in the starters – among them also striker Abel Ruiz, author of the 2-2 goal – the game changed completely. A draw and two victories is so far the haul of one of the main candidates for the final victory, who before the match with Ukraine had won 3-0 over Romania and 1-0 over Croatia.
The Prediction
In this match there is a clear favourite and that can only be Spain. The Rojita has an impressive amount of talent, well distributed in every department, and should have no problem getting through the round against a Switzerland that qualified by the skin of its teeth, despite a colabre defence. The total goals will most likely be at least three.
The official line-ups for Spain v Switzerland
- SPAN U21 (4-2-3-1): Tenas; V. Gomez, Paredes, Pacheco, Miranda; Baena, Blanco; Sanchez, Sancet, S. Gomez; Ruiz.
- SWITZERLAND U21 (4-2-3-1): Saipi; Blum, Stergiou, Amenda, Omeragic; Jashari, Sohm; Males, Imeri, Ndoye; Amdouni.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 3-1
