There will be many more unequal duels like those between Switzerland and Qatar at the 2026 World Cup. The top teams were shown by the Swiss what they were not allowed to do.
Switzerland against Qatar, Germany against Curaçao, Spain against Cape Verde, Norway against Iraq, Austria against Jordan, Portugal against the Democratic Republic of Congo – on the first matchday of the group phase alone there are a large number of games where the answer to the question of the winner should not be thought about for a second. But the first of these games caused the first embarrassment for a favorite.
Yakin: “Determination and killer instinct were missing”
Switzerland didn’t get more than a 1-1 (1-0) draw against Qatar. She led for a long time. She had a lot of chances to lead even higher. And in the 95th minute the opponent finally celebrated. The World Cup has its first big sensation without the underdog playing sensationally. The result is a mixture of inaccuracies, lack of concentration and a huge portion of carelessness.
Switzerland had everything under control, they had a lot more ball possession, a lot more shots on goal (26:7), significantly more corners (10:3), forced more turnovers (35:29), but forgot to close the bag and deprive Qatar of the chance to get back into the game. “Nati” coach Murat Yakin was understandably extremely annoyed about this.
“It’s our quality to dominate a game. We also had the chances, but didn’t convert them. In the end, the determination and the killer instinct were missing.”said Yakin. “That’s why the opponent believed in it and scored the goal in the last minute, something like that can happen. But we didn’t lose the game in the last minute.”
Switzerland experiences “CATAR verse at the start of the World Cup”
The coaches of the other “big players” at this World Cup, on the other hand, should be grateful for the Qatar equalizer. They will now have an extremely easy time in the dressing room; they have an example to show their players that it can happen to lose points against even the seemingly easy opponent. The men on the pitch should now remember what happened to Switzerland at all times.
Yes, the World Cup with its format offers the opportunity to make such a slip-up – but nobody wants to become the laughing stock of their own country because they didn’t win against an exotic World Cup player. Switzerland is exactly that, the “Blick” headline, for example “KATAR verse at the start of the World Cup”. And after that, all the other favorites will now have to show the necessary seriousness in order not to experience this too.