The Nati's results crisis comes to an end against Luxembourg. After nine months and eight games, Murat Yakin's team will finally get another win. Yakin surprises with his line-up.
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- Switzerland beat Luxembourg 3:1 in a test match, the first win for the national team since the European Championship round of 16 against Italy in June 2024.
- Murat Yakin surprises with his line-up after announcing on Monday that he would not start Breel Embolo and Ricardo Rodriguez.
- "The final training session gave me important insights," explained the national team coach after the game.
Although the result is important for self-confidence and morale, it is still secondary at the moment, Murat Yakin told the media the day before the Luxembourg test. He wanted to use the game more to try out new things and test players.
Yakin also announced on Monday morning that Breel Embolo and Ricardo Rodriguez, among others, would not be in the starting eleven against Luxembourg and that "someone with 50 or one with 57 international caps" - Ruben Vargas or Denis Zakaria - would be captain. All the more surprising then that Embolo and Rodriguez will start on Tuesday and the latter will also wear the captain's armband.
After the 3-1 win, the national team coach explained at the media conference: "The final training session gave me important insights. I wanted to start with Andi Zeqiri, but unfortunately he was in pain today and couldn't play, so Embolo came on. After training on Monday, I felt that Rodriguez was the right choice for our attacking play."
It was the right decision to "start with the best", as Yakin says. Even if he actually wanted to take it easy on the 32-year-old. "Bringing Rodriguez off the bench is not his thing. That's why I made that decision. And because he has the most caps of anyone present with 127, he was also captain."
Muheim "the best man on the pitch"
Rodriguez plays a solid part in the three-man central defense and is already off after 45 minutes. The man who runs up and down the left side has drawn attention to himself: Miro Muheim. The HSV professional is directly involved in two goals and receives special praise from the coach.
"He was the best man on the pitch," said Yakin, praising the left-back. "Defensively and offensively. You could already see in training that he has rhythm. A great asset for us."
The question remains as to who scored the 3:0 goal. Muheim deflected the shot from Ruben Vargas and the goal is officially credited to him. After the game, Muheim was visibly delighted: "At first I didn't think the goal was mine, but I'm happy to take it. Sorry Ruben, but that's my goal now!"
The next match will follow in June. The national team will then play tests against Mexico and the USA. Yakin has already announced that he will already be thinking about the World Cup qualifiers by then and wants to try out fewer things: "It was important that we were able to test a few things now to have more options. So that we're ready when we have absences again - and don't have to try things out in June."
