"Now we need to get our feet back on the ground"

Murat Yakin: “It hurts a lot. We weren’t rewarded enough for the effort we put in. We weren’t efficient enough. That’s just how it is in soccer: if you don’t score, you get scored on. They defended well, always getting a foot in the way. And when you’re only leading 1-0, the opponent starts to believe. They caught us at exactly the right moment, when we couldn’t react anymore. We actually had the game under control, but in the end, we lacked a bit of cleverness.”

Granit Xhaka: “If you don’t score up front, you’ll concede. Maybe we also lost a bit of patience, thinking we absolutely had to make it 2-0. We need to be smart and experienced enough to see the game through at 1-0. We knew they were waiting for their moment. And they got it in the 94th minute. At the end of the second half, we lost our rhythm—that can’t happen at this level. Now we have to come back down to earth and face reality. And the reality is that right now, we’re nowhere near ready to talk about a title or a best World Cup.”

Manuel Akanji: “I don’t think we can create any more scoring chances. We have so many opportunities—really good ones. We just have to score the goals. We’re playing in a World Cup. If you give the opponent a chance to get back into the game right up until the 94th minute, then it’s bound to happen eventually. We only have ourselves to blame. We lacked determination in front of the goal. But I don’t think we lacked commitment.”

Gregor Kobel: “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to follow up and score the second goal. In the end, we lacked a bit of precision and consistency. Then they scored a beautiful header on their last play. That’s incredibly bitter for us.”