SWITZERLAND VS PANAMA PREVIEW & PREDICTION
At the Swissporarena in Luzern, the World Cup players Switzerland and Panama face each other on Tuesday-evening. Both countries want to adjust their team even better to be able to surprise Russia in the coming summer.
Switzerland:
Switzerland completed a peculiar path towards World Cup qualification. The Alpenland won no less than nine of the ten World Cup qualifiers in Group B, but still had to watch the Portuguese win with the group win on the basis of a worse goal balance. Fortunately, there is sometimes something like justice, because in the playoffs La Nati just sneaked past Northern Ireland (0-1 and 0-0) and the team of national coach Vladimir Petkovic could still book her flight tickets to Russia. The Swiss take on Brazil, Serbia and Costa Rica in the group stage of the World Cup, so reaching the knockout stage is the minimum goal.
Switzerland must have it mainly from its closed defense, because in the last ten international matches the red shirts managed to keep no less than eight times. Also last Friday, in the friendly match against Greece (0-1), goalkeeper Yann Sommer again kept his goal clean. Valon Behrami, who has played the pans of the roof since his recent relationship with skister Lara Gut, and goalkeeper Blerim Dzemaili were the big stars in Athens. Like almost all players in the selection of the Swiss, they earn their living abroad. In that respect, the Swiss are in the same boat as the Netherlands and Belgium: everyone who sticks out a bit above ground level is quickly picked up by clubs from larger leagues. However, FC Basel saw this season that it is also sporadically possible for less wealthy clubs to survive the group stage of the Champions League. It’s no coincidence that the Swiss top club, together with Borussia Mönchengladbach, is a three-player supplier, although only right-back Michael Lang has a serious chance of being on the base at the World Championships.
Panama:
For Panama, the World Cup mission has actually already succeeded, because the Central American country qualified for a World Cup final round for the first time in qualifying, including keeping the United States behind. In a pool with Belgium, Tunisia and England, it seems almost impossible to reach the knockout phase, but Los Canaleros are planning to sell their skin for a long time.
Panama is for us a completely unknown football country, so in that respect the practice match of last Friday in and against Denmark was very interesting. As expected, the visitors kept many players behind the ball, while lurking on the counter. In the first half Panama managed to keep the home country in check, but after the tea, Christian Eriksen and associates turned the thumbscrews. Halfway through the second half, attacker Blas Perez was able to advance after a blunt action at Denmark closing point Kasper Schmeichel. The resistance was then quickly broken, as only three minutes later, Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo could fish the net out of his net.
On a visit to Switzerland, Panama will probably be able to park the bus again, hoping to be able to make the switch. According to the Panamanian Telemetro, national coach Hernan Dario Gomez will rotate on Tuesday evening and Harold Cummings, Roman Torres, Luis Ovalle, Gavilan Gomez, Miguel Camargo, Ricardo Avila and Gabriel Torres will become the new faces in his 5-4-1 formation.
PREDICTION: Under 2.5 goals @ 1.88
