The preparations in St. Gallen have gone to the liking of national team coach Murat Yakin. Now the first points in the Nations League are to follow in the away match in Serbia.
It was not a pleasant journey for Murat Yakin to the south of Serbia. The plane took off late and the Swiss national coach was also plagued by the after-effects of a cold. Nevertheless, the 50-year-old looked forward to the encounter with Serbia at the press conference. "Serbia have to score, we have to score: It will be an exciting and landmark game."
After the clash at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which Yakin watched as a spectator in the stadium, and the clash at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with Yakin as coach, the two national teams will meet for the third time. Looking back, Yakin said that they were two intense and crazy games. Switzerland narrowly prevailed twice. And the Swiss national coach believes they are well placed for a third victory on Saturday.
Better preparation
Unlike in September, when the Swiss already played the away game in Copenhagen on Thursday after pulling together on Monday, they had a slightly longer preparation time this time. "We've trained intensively and are now looking forward to a real yardstick after a lot of things went against us in the first two games." As usual, Yakin was not forthcoming about the line-up, but announced that he would be fielding "the best eleven".
The coach seemed less concerned that emotions could boil over again. "Football needs emotion and passion," said Yakin. Speaking specifically about captain Granit Xhaka, who was at the center of provocations twice against Serbia and most recently saw a red card against Denmark, Yakin said: "We're concentrating on tomorrow, not on the past."
Balanced starting position
While Switzerland are still without points after defeats against Denmark (0:2) and Spain (1:4), Serbia have at least one point to their name. Coach Dragan Stojkovic's team earned this point with a 0-0 draw against Spain in Belgrade. The Serbs then lost 2-0 in Copenhagen, as did Switzerland.
The match will take place in Leskovac at the Dubocica Stadium, which opened in 2023 and has a capacity of 8136 fans. Second-division club GFK Dubocica normally play their home games here. Switzerland is the second host nation in the new stadium. At the premiere in November 2023, Serbia and Bulgaria drew 2:2.
The possible line-ups:
Serbia - Switzerland
Leskovac. - SR Sozza (ITA).
Serbia: Rajkovic; Erakovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic; Nedeljkovic, Lukic, Grujic, Maksimovic, Birmancevic; Samardzic, Mitrovic.
Switzerland: Kobel; Elvedi, Akanji, Rodriguez; Widmer, Freuler, Xhaka, Aebischer; Rieder, Embolo, Ndoye.
