National coach Murat Yakin in a good mood at the press conference ahead of the home game against Slovenia
Keystone
Switzerland will face Slovenia on Monday in the second match of the World Cup qualifiers. National coach Murat Yakin has announced that he will field the same team as in the opening win against Kosovo.
Yakin normally keeps a low profile before a game as far as the line-up is concerned. Sunday evening is different. The national team coach, who turns 51 on September 15, said at the press conference that he saw no reason to make any changes. After the 4-0 win against Kosovo, when all the goals were scored in the first half, this would have been surprising. After all, this is Switzerland’s second home game in a row and the players were able to focus fully on recovery without the stress of traveling.
The only question is whether Ricardo Rodriguez will be fit again in time. The left-back was substituted at half-time on Friday. Apparently, the player himself had pleaded to continue playing, while the coach preferred to exercise caution in view of the clear lead at the break. “He feels okay again since yesterday and is doing a trial training session today,” said Yakin. He’s not worried, there are enough alternatives.
While the regular players should be happy about the vote of confidence, the others will have to accept their substitute role. This includes Denis Zakaria, who plays an important role at AS Monaco as captain and top performer, but has taken a back seat to Granit Xhaka and Remo Freuler in the national team for years. Recently, he has also had bad luck with injuries. It is a situation that also concerns Yakin. “I’m racking my brains,” said the national team coach. “He’s an important player for us, but in the current system he can’t get past Granit and Remo. I’ve discussed with him that I don’t want to change at the moment and he’s accepted that.”
Zakaria, like others, will be available if he is needed during the match against Slovenia. Only 10,200 tickets had been sold for this match by Sunday evening. The fact that the game takes place on a Monday at 8.45pm, combined with the rather high ticket prices, seems to be putting many fans off.
The possible line-ups
Switzerland – Slovenia
Monday, 8.45 pm. – Basel. – SR Letexier (FRA).
Switzerland: Kobel; Widmer, Elvedi, Akanji, Rodriguez; Xhaka, Freuler; Vargas, Rieder, Ndoye; Embolo.
Slovenia: Oblak; Karnicnik, Drkusic, Bijol, Janza; Stojanovic, Cerin, Elsnik, Lovric; Vipotnik, Sesko.