ENGLAND WARNED THAT EUROS GIANT-KILLERS SWITZERLAND ARE ‘VERY WELL PREPARED’ TO STRIKE AGAIN
Switzerland have proved they can dump the so-called big nations out of the European Championship, the former Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos has warned England.
Senderos also believes that England must “click” now to avoid becoming the latest prestigious scalp for the Swiss, with whom the 39-year-old won 57 caps.
Switzerland knocked out holders Italy to set up Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter-final tie against England, having knocked France out of the last European Championship on penalties.
“Switzerland beat France in the last Euros and they beat Italy now, that’s two big nations I believe,” said Senderos. “So what they need is to go to the last four teams, they haven’t done that.
“It’s the amount of big games, that’s where you learn the most so I believe Switzerland are very well prepared for this England game. They’ve already beaten big teams and have this baggage and experience.”
Senderos, who is now a high performance specialist in Arsène Wenger’s talent development scheme at Fifa, believes England are favourites to beat Switzerland only on paper and is waiting to see Gareth Southgate’s team click.
“I think England in a big tournament will always be the favourite ahead of Switzerland, because of the name and the history etc,” said Senderos. “In terms of the game and form, at the moment Switzerland has had a fantastic tournament and has really gone through the rounds comfortably with a lot of technical control as well as game control.
“I believe Switzerland comes in with a bit of confidence. I still think this is a big competition and we’ve seen France not firing the way they should, England not yet. But they are building up into the competition, so I expect a very tough game. It goes well for Switzerland not to be the favourite.
“Everyone thinks Switzerland have a chance because it hasn’t been spectacular, but it’s still England, it’s still a team full of world-class players. They might click at one point and we all expect them to click now — the critical point of the competition. They are a very dangerous team and they have probably not done what we all expected to see until now, but they are full of quality players. For all of us, England is still one of the favourites.”
‘England should focus on their strengths’
As reported by Telegraph Sport, Southgate is considering matching up Switzerland’s back three on Saturday but Senderos believe England should be focussing on their own strengths.
“A big team like England should really play on their own strengths, but if they feel this would put their players in a better position, that’s the call of the management, the coach and even the players to have their say,” said Senderos.
“They might want to match a little bit what Switzerland do in terms of attacking and England have the players to play any sort of formation. I don’t think that’s really an important point because within the game the team moves around. But for Switzerland, I don’t think we will move too much because we’ve found a way that works.”
Senderos believes Southgate has “got the job done” up to this point and believes England are relying on “moments” from their big names, such as Jude Bellingham, who scored the last-gasp equaliser against Slovakia.
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Asked for his opinion on Southgate, Senderos said: “Well first, they [England] are here at this stage of the competition. It depends what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for style, then I’m sure these players are able to bring you the style. At the moment, they have probably not done it or not performed all together the way everyone would have wanted.
“But they’ve been able to get the results. They were in the final of the last Euros and now in the quarter-finals, so in terms of results they are here where everyone wanted them to be. It’s a long competition and winning the next game is always the most important thing.
“We’ve seen it with France. In terms of goals scored, it hasn’t been spectacular, but they do have the players to score goals. The important thing is to keep the squad together over a period of time and they’ve been able to do that.
“In terms of England, they have the players to change the game and you don’t have to be too spectacular because you have the likes of Bellingham, who can score in the last moment, or Phil Foden, who can come with the magical moment. Getting all of these players of quality to play together is a very difficult job but they’ve managed to get the results. Nobody can say anything about this so, in terms of Southgate, he got the job done so far.”
On the fact England are reliant on “moments”, Senderos added: “When you have these types of players, it’s important to be able to do that. In Switzerland we might not have that. We might have to work on different things. We had the likes of Shaqiri, he might not be able to produce those moments as often as we would have liked nowadays but he’s able to do it sometimes — we saw it in the group stage. But England have multiple players who can produce that in those moments.”
2024-07-04T16:38:21Z dg43tfdfdgfd