Stodgy Switzerland frustrate Petkovic after World Cup exit

Switzerland boss Vladimir Petkovic felt his team “got stuck in the middle” after their World Cup campaign came to a rather subdued end against Sweden on Tuesday.

Emil Forsberg’s deflected strike in the 66th minute settled a last-16 tie big on effort but lacking in quality, with the two nations combining to produce just seven shots on target.

The defeat was Switzerland’s first since October 2017 but continues an unhappy tradition of losing in the knockout rounds of the competition.

They have exited at the last-16 stage at four World Cups, including four years ago in Brazil, leaving Petkovic to ponder what exactly went wrong in St Petersburg.

“We didn’t find that fluid type of play, we were not lucid enough,” he told the media.

“We got stuck in the middle. Maybe we were not focused enough, so it was easy enough for Sweden to beat us.

“We have been considered favourites before and we have been showing quality, but that didn’t come out in this game. Sweden are a strong team, we didn’t expect to lose against them, but there are tiny details that make the difference.

“We wanted to do more, clearly, but we also congratulate the Sweden team. They have done precisely what they are good at and that was enough to beat us. Of course we should do things better, but we were not good enough to win the match.

“We need to analyse. We have been missing something there. The way we play probably didn’t allow us to carry players forward, but we are not the only ones on the pitch.”

Switzerland finished the game with 10 men after the late dismissal of Michael Lang, the defender shown a red card after tripping Martin Olsson when the Sweden substitute was through on goal.

Petkovic took charge after the national team lost at the same stage of the 2014 competition to Argentina, though he was unable to prevent them losing on penalties to Poland in the opening knockout round at Euro 2016.

“Of course, we have had opportunities to throw ourselves forward, but what we saw after France [two years ago] was the same situation as what we are facing now,” he added. 

“There are a number of things that need to improve. The team is moving forward, but there is only so much you can do, sometimes you fail.”