Euro 2024: What should Scotland expect from Switzerland? – BBC Sport

While Scotland have been besieged by negativity during this run of one victory in 10, Switzerland entered the competition after a rather unconvincing qualifying campaign in what was the easiest group.

After taking maximum points from their first three games they stumbled through the rest, winning just once more – at home to minnows Andorra – as they finished behind Romania and just ahead of Israel.

They dropped points to Belarus, scrambling a draw from two goals down in the closing minutes, and twice to Kosovo en route to their sixth European Championship. Late goal concessions were a regular occurrence.

They did just enough in the end, but their first-half performance against Hungary on Saturday suggests they are capable of once again negotiating the group stage.

Captain Granit Xhaka pulled the strings and was deservedly named man of the match as they won 3-1, and his role in the side is not too dissimilar to that of Toni Kroos for the Germans.

Many within the squad are coming into this competition having had excellent seasons with their clubs.

Goalkeeper Yann Sommer helped Internazionale win the Scudetto in Italy and Xhaka excelled as he drove unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title.

Leonidas Stergiou was part of the Stuttgart side that enjoyed their highest finish in the German top flight since they last won the title in 2007.

Lewis Ferguson’s club-mates Remo Freuler, Michel Aebischer and Dan Ndoye have – alongside the injured Scotland midfielder – helped guide Bologna into next season’s new-look Champions League.

And defender Manuel Akanji collected his second Premier League title with Manchester City.

This is a generation of players that know what it takes to succeed on the international stage, 11 of their squad have more than 50 caps with former Arsenal man Xhaka in line for his 127th against Scotland.

Memories of eliminating then world champions France from the last Euros on penalties are still fresh in the mind for the Swiss. And it was a shootout that denied them a place in the semi-finals as they went down to Spain.

They backed that up by reaching the knockouts in Qatar at the last World Cup though they were unceremoniously dumped out by Portugal.

The match against Scotland won’t faze them in the slightest and coach Murat Yakin will know that a victory sees them through to the last 16 before they’ve even had a look at the Germans. The incentive for the Swiss is clear.

It doesn’t come without pressure, however, with Yakin having to be given a vote of confidence by the Swiss FA in the days before the tournament.

The appointment of experienced coach Giorgio Contini signalled a change of tactics in recent times to something similar to the successful formation deployed by Yakin’s predecessor Vladimir Petkovic.

A year and one day on from Scotland’s miracle of Oslo, do Steve Clarke and his players have a magic major tournament moment in them like that provided by Ally McCoist against the Swiss at Villa Park 28 years ago?

If not, this tournament they did so well to qualify for may pass them by.