The ghosts of the past reflected on the Swiss football team when it entered the 2026 World Cup on Saturday. In the lead for almost the entire game, she conceded the equalizer on one of the rare opposing chances. Consequence: the Nati could not do better than a draw against Qatar (1-1), the weakest team in the group, and thus missed its entry into the running in this World Cup.
At the end of this poor performance, the Swiss players were dejected. The speeches oscillated between fatalism and annoyance. “It’s football, when you don’t score your chances, you then concede,” declared Michel Aebischer at the RTS microphone. “We must better manage the end of matches and no longer repeat this,” said Denis Zakaria.
Unfortunately, these late goals are commonplace. They have even become the main scourge of Murat Yakin’s Switzerland since 2023. In three years, the Nati has conceded an equalizer or defeat in the last 10 minutes 9 times in an official match.
A bad joke in 2023
It all started on June 19, 2023 against Romania during qualifying for Euro 2024. Switzerland led 2-0 in the 89th minute. Final score: 2-2. Three other draws in similar circumstances (against Israel and twice against Kosovo) dotted this campaign. To the point that it almost became a bad running gag.
There was then this 1-1 against Germany at Euro 2024, then Denmark, Serbia and Spain in the Nations League in the fall of 2024. Certainly, the scenarios and the value of the opponents are different, but the observation is there: Switzerland cracks the gong too often.
However, this concern had since disappeared. So how can we explain this relapse against Qatar? Have past traumas resurfaced? Is it related to a smug attitude?
“Learn from our mistakes”
The second option seems more credible as Switzerland’s second half on Saturday was poor. “I have nothing to say about the attitude of the players. I saw a team playing football,” Murat Yakin told RTS.
Denis Zakaria was not of the same opinion: “We did not play the match we needed, we must learn from our mistakes.” We will have to learn quickly, so as not to relive a similar misadventure on Thursday against Bosnia-Herzegovina (9 p.m.) in Los Angeles. And above all so that it does not become the scourge of the Nati again.
