{"id":101416,"date":"2026-07-10T23:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T23:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/101416\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T23:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T23:39:09","slug":"swiss-praise-messi-but-say-they-can-hurt-argentina-in-quarter-final-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/101416\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss praise Messi but say they can hurt Argentina in quarter-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saves a penalty shot by Colombia’s Cucho Hernandez in a shootout during the World Cup round-of-16 match in Vancouver on Tuesday.Gregory Bull\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Switzerland players have heaped praise on Lionel Messi ahead of Saturday\u2019s World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, but said they have identified weaknesses in the defending champions and believe they can cause an upset.<\/p>\n

Midfielder Denis Zakaria described Argentina as the best team in the world and Messi as the game\u2019s outstanding player, but insisted his side had the quality to contain the eight-times Ballon d\u2019Or winner and derail the South Americans\u2019 title bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be up to us to produce a very big performance if we want to beat them,\u201d Zakaria told reporters. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s always difficult to stop a player like that, but I think we have the quality and we have the players to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switzerland, who eliminated Algeria and Colombia in the knockout rounds, have reached the quarter-finals for the first time in 72 years but are hungry for more, the 29-year-old midfielder added.<\/p>\n

Messi has scored eight goals in the tournament, level with France\u2019s Kylian Mbappe, and inspired Argentina\u2019s 3-2 comeback victory over Egypt in the last 16 after his side trailed 2-0 with 11 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

COLLECTIVE EFFORT<\/p>\n

Zakaria noted that Messi\u2019s freedom of movement makes him particularly difficult to neutralise, but added that the key to beat Argentina would be a collective effort rather than an exclusive focus on their captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Messi is the best or one of the best players in the world, but in the end, Argentina are not only Messi. Other players are good and we know that we don\u2019t have to be only focused on Messi,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forward Zeki Amdouni echoed his teammate\u2019s admiration for Messi but said Switzerland had spotted opportunities to exploit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve studied them and we\u2019ll continue to do so today. I think there is space, and if we\u2019re here today, it\u2019s because we can hurt them too,\u201d Amdouni said.<\/p>\n

Former Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann raised eyebrows this week when he claimed on German television that Swiss players appeared to have too much respect for Messi and only wanted to leave the game with his shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessi is a great player – the greatest. When you\u2019re a child, everyone has idols. But playing against them is different,\u201d Amdouni said. \u201cWe\u2019ll give everything on the field and do our best to beat Argentina.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saves a penalty shot by Colombia’s Cucho Hernandez in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1064,1051,1065,1042,1040,1066,563,1039,1057,1058,1054,1041,1038,39,1062,457,1056,1049,1077,1043,1044,70,1052,1053,899,1067,1047,1072,1073,1075,1070,1074,1068,1071,1045,1060,1061,69,1059,1069,1050,41,17,789,1063,1055,1048,1046,1076],"class_list":["post-101416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}