World Cup qualification in October
© Imago
Defender Luca Jaquez (22) from VfB Stuttgart is one of two newcomers in the Swiss national team squad. On Thursday morning, Nati coach Murat Yakin nominated his team for the World Cup qualification games in Sweden and Slovenia in October.
Jaquez switched from FC Lucerne to VfB last February for 6.5 million euros, in which he was mostly on the bench in the second half of the season and was only in the starting eleven three times, including the DFB Cup final against Arminia Bielefeld (4: 2). So far, four missions over 331 minutes have been available in the new season.
In addition to Jaquez, eight other Bundesliga players can be found in the line-up: Gregor Kobel (27; BVB), Aurèle Amenda (22; Frankfurt), Johan Manzambi (19; Freiburg), Fabian Rieder (23; Augsburg), Nico Elvedi (29; Gladbach), Miro Muheim (27; HSV), Isaac Schmidt (25; Werder) (32; Mainz). With Cedric Itten (28) from Fortuna Düsseldorf there is also a professional from the 2nd Bundesliga. Another newcomer to Jaquez is defender Adrian Bajrami (23) from FC Lucerne. The most valuable Swiss is goalkeeper Kobel with a market value of 40 million euros.
Switzerland meets Sweden on October 10th in Stockholm and three days later in Ljubljana in Slovenia. After two victories in the first two games, the Nati is the leaders of Group B. Behind it follows Kosovo (three points), Sweden and Slovenia (one point each).