{"id":91524,"date":"2026-06-24T23:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/91524\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T23:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:31:13","slug":"switzerland-2-1-canada-swiss-quick-double-wins-them-group-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/91524\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland 2-1 Canada: Swiss quick double wins them Group B"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switzerland scored twice in the opening ten minutes of the second half to beat Canada 2-1 in Vancouver, leapfrogging them to finish at the top of Group B, and securing a Round of 32 tie in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Story of the match<\/p>\n

Chasing that top spot, Switzerland had the first big chance of the evening in Vancouver after just 10 minutes. Ricardo Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s pass set Breel Embolo free with just Maxime Cr\u00e9peau between him and the goal. It was a poor attempt, firing the ball straight at the Orlando City goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Four minutes later, Canada had their first attacking moment, a ball through to Cyle Larin found him one-on-one with the Swiss goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel, but the Borussia Dortmund keeper was assertive, and denied Larin from being able to go around him.<\/p>\n

A couple of end-to-end moments saw Embolo force a simple save from Cr\u00e9peau, while Canada had a free kick which was comfortably stopped by Kobel.<\/p>\n

The game went a little bit flat after the opening 15 minutes, but following the hydration break, Switzerland wasted a very bright opportunity as Rub\u00e9n Vargas was unable to play the ball right across the box to Embolo to score the simplest of tap-ins.<\/p>\n

Though both teams were already set for the knockouts, Canada wanted to finish the groups on a high, and nearly took the lead before half-time as Ali Ahmed\u2019s strike forced Kobel into making a quick reaction save down to his left.<\/p>\n

Vargas shifts the momentum with the opening goal<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Switzerland stunned the majority of Vancouver\u2019s BC Place 40 seconds after half-time, Johan Manzambi\u2019s cross from deep was left by Embolo, and collected by Vargas to smash the ball in off the left post.<\/p>\n

As things stood, Switzerland would be winning Group B and denying Canada a Round of 32 tie in Terminal City.<\/p>\n

Manzambi extends lead\"SwitzerlandJohan Manzambi was having a brilliant breakout tournament. (Photo by Alex Grimm\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

10 minutes later, Johan Manzambi\u2019s breakout tournament continued with his third goal in two games, and a crucial 2-0 lead for Switzerland. Embolo hesitated with a chip, but found the youngster on his right, and his powerful shot went through the hands of Cr\u00e9peau.<\/p>\n

Whether it was a poor save or a powerful shot, Switzerland were in control of the game, and now of their own destiny in Group B.<\/p>\n

Promise David scores superb goal to give Canada hope<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Canada was not going down without a fight. An absolutely wonderful team goal, a long pass was controlled incredibly by Nathan Saliba, and he squared it to Promise David to turn the ball in with his first touch and make it 2-1.<\/p>\n

Canada continued to push forward, with six minutes of added time, they needed B.C Place to get behind them, David flicked a long throw on, and only into the hands of Kobel. Alistair Johnston had a huge chance in the final minute of added time, directing his header into Kobel\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Group B round-up<\/p>\n

That was to be the last chance of the afternoon, which meant that despite drawing their first game, Switzerland had won Group B, which means they would play a third-place team from Group E,F,G,I or J, and that would take place in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Canada had qualified for the World Cup knockouts for the first time<\/a>, facing second in Group A, which looked like it was going to be South Korea, though South Africa and Czechia still had an opportunity to leapfrog them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Switzerland scored twice in the opening ten minutes of the second half to beat Canada 2-1 in Vancouver,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[23391,563,10940,38052,36986,45764,23388,17,20910],"class_list":["post-91524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-breel-embolo","tag-canada","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-group-b","tag-johan-manzambi","tag-promise-david","tag-ruben-vargas","tag-switzerland","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116807695306249815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91524","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=91524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}