Switzerland hit the front through Xherdan Shaqiri strike.Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic completed nine-minute turnaround.Breel Embolo and Remo Freuler struck either side of break to reclaim lead.
A back-and-forth match ended with #SUI advancing to the last 16!
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Switzerland emerged on top from a topsy-turvy, highly charged encounter with Serbia to book a FIFA World Cup™ last-16 date with Portugal on Tuesday.
A game that began at a cracking pace and never let up swung one way then the other, Switzerland tossing away a one-goal lead, only to recover for their second straight win. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic saved from Breel Embolo and Granit Xhaka as the Swiss poured forward in the first minute.
Serbia’s response came in the form of an Andrija Zivkovic shot from distance that slammed the post. But Switzerland led when Djibril Sow collected a weak clearance from Strahinja Pavlovic to calmly feed Xherdan Shaqiri for the forward to score in a third consecutive World Cup.
Serbia stormed back from trailing Cameroon on Monday and they repeated the trick here. Aleksandar Mitrovic met Dusan Tadic’s delivery with a brilliant header that flew beyond Gregor Kobel, the goalkeeper who received a late summons, with regular No1 Yann Sommer laid low by illness.
Kobel was beaten again eight minutes later, Dusan Vlahovic profiting when the ubiquitous Tadic’s eye-of-the-needle pass was deflected into the striker’s path for a lashed finish into the bottom corner.
Embolo levelled 60 seconds before half-time, steering in from close range after Switzerland got down the Serbia left for Silvan Widmer to cross along floor. Nottingham Forest midfielder Freuler fastened onto Ruben Vargas’s magnificent lay-off on the volley from Shaqiri’s pitching-wedge pass to slide a cute effort past Milinkovic-Savic three minutes after half-time.
How many more goals was this barmy game going to serve up? Not many viewers would have predicted we’d seen the last of them. The same can be said of Serbia in this competition. But the Swiss are hanging around for more.
Xherdan Sahqiri is keeping company with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi among the three players who have scored at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Remo Freuler is the first Nottingham Forest player to score at a FIFA World Cup since Pierre van Hooijdonk netted for the Netherlands against Korea Republic at France 98.
Switzerland coach Murat Yakin said, “My team said they wanted to make history. We were happy with this result and the way we played. We deserved to win.”
Player of the Match:Granit Xhaka
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