Clear-cut chances were few and far between in this stalemate as centre-back Jhon Lucum\u00ed came closest with his header off the crossbar in the first half of extra-time.<\/p>\n
Penalties were the only way to decide an outcome, when Switzerland<\/a> prevailed 4-3. Gregor Kobel saved Juan Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s penalty before Rub\u00e9n Vargas sent Murat Yakin\u2019s side into the last eight, where they will play defending champions Argentina.<\/p>\n Switzerland Player Ratings<\/p>\n Gregor Kobel – 7<\/p>\n He remained composed between the sticks to deal with crosses and distribute from the back. He fashioned two important saves from Luis D\u00edaz and Jaminton Campaz, while his crucial stop to deny Hern\u00e1ndez ensured Switzerland had their noses in front in the shootout.<\/p>\n Denis Zakaria – 7<\/p>\n The Monaco captain plays at right-back on international duty, and got round on the cover well to avert danger throughout. He avoided getting isolated in duels with Colombia\u2019s talisman D\u00edaz by closing the space swiftly and still got forwards to support attacks.<\/p>\n Nico Elvedi – 6<\/p>\n After Fabian Sch\u04d3r\u2019s retirement from international football in 2024, there were big shoes to fill in the back line. Stalwart Elvedi showed experience when the suffocating press of the opponents was led from the front, and he made sure to protect Kobel from danger.<\/p>\n Manuel Akanji – 6<\/p>\n Unable to vanquish the penalty demons from his miss against England two years ago in the European Championships exit, his passing range still caught the eye, including playing through the lines. <\/p>\n A solid asset at the back to keep Luis Su\u00e1rez at bay and a key leader for his side.<\/p>\n Ricardo Rodr\u00edguez – 6<\/p>\n At his fourth World Cup, the left-back lasted 71 minutes before being withdrawn and tested Daniel Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s concentration in defence when he forayed into opposing territory, and often facilitated Dan Ndoye to drift inside.<\/p>\n Remo Freuler – 6<\/p>\n The 34-year-old was using every drop of his experience in this tie, helping to maintain possession and cropping up in the pockets when Switzerland staggered their progression upfield.<\/p>\n Complemented Granit Xhaka as a metronome, but only supplied a handful of incisive passes.<\/p>\n Granit Xhaka – 7<\/p>\n The captain was often peeling out wide on the left to streamline the build-up play, which seemed a deliberate ploy to expose the gaps ahead.<\/p>\n Winning fouls and covering ground as well as quality passing, Xhaka led by example as expected, although his error in the dying embers fortunately went unpunished by Campaz.<\/p>\n Ardon Jashari – 5<\/p>\n The youngest starter for Switzerland adopted an attacking midfield role for much of proceedings until he departed at half-time. He attracted defenders well but hardly threaded through threatening passes.<\/p>\n Fabian Rieder – 6<\/p>\n Rieder blundered an open goal in the victory over Algeria<\/a>, yet he still featured due to Johan Manzambi\u2019s late injury blow<\/a>. This was not a straight swap for the latter and Rieder could not be the ideal foil to Breel Embolo. <\/p>\n Instead, he favoured nimble turns or fluid passing, but Manzambi\u2019s absence was accentuated by an offering that paled in comparison.<\/p>\n Breel Embolo – 6<\/p>\n The striker sorely missed his young attacking partner as the Colombian centre-backs could work in tandem to stifle him. Unlike in previous games, he was frustrated in the duels and holding the ball up, but battled throughout to impose himself.<\/p>\n Dan Ndoye – 6<\/p>\n Nottingham Forest\u2019s fringe winger was unnoticeable in the first half, perhaps due to Rodr\u00edguez scampering into his space. His second half output improved with lively wing play, but his final product was unconvincing.<\/p>\n Substitutes<\/p>\n Djibril Sow – 6<\/p>\n He was unprepared when receiving his first chance in the penalty box. He drifted out wide on the right flank and also dictated centrally with good energy to compete with the Colombian substitutes.<\/p>\n Miro Muheim – 5<\/p>\n Slightly less effective at left-back in attacking areas and struggled to curb Campaz in moments, picking up a yellow card, too.<\/p>\n Silvan Widmer – 5<\/p>\n Came on at right-back at the end of normal time and he was able to negate D\u00edaz\u2019s attempts to find the breakthrough when necessary. He also regularly used the ball well to evade the defenders.<\/p>\n Cedric Itten – 5<\/p>\n The Werder Bremen man was employed as the substitute striker and drew contact from Davinson S\u00e1nchez. Running the channels more often, the profile of the Swiss focal point shifted, but no clear-cut chances fell his way. Scored his penalty.<\/p>\n Rub\u00e9n Vargas – 5<\/p>\n There were doubts over the winger\u2019s fitness prior to getting underway, and he rarely elected to go toe-to-toe with his defender. <\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t make the scintillating, immediate impact like he did against Bosnia and Herzegovina off the bench, but held his nerve to net the final penalty in the shootout.<\/p>\n Zeki Amdouni – 6<\/p>\n Yakin opted to use the additional substitution permitted during extra-time. <\/p>\n After only returning from an ACL injury for Burnley two months ago, he was unperturbed by the fresh Colombians in the middle of the park during a neat cameo. He effortlessly sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with his spot kick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clear-cut chances were few and far between in this stalemate as centre-back Jhon Lucum\u00ed came closest with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[24581,1680,10780,20916,25899,17,13703],"class_list":["post-99808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-algeria","tag-argentina","tag-colombia","tag-granit-xhaka","tag-luis-diaz","tag-switzerland","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116884400096766338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99808","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=99808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}