World Cup Switzerland boss pleased with ‘mature performance’
SWITZERLAND coach Murat Yakin hailed a mature performance from his team as they opened their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 victory over Cameroon.
Breel Embolo, who was born in the West African country, scored the only goal when he stroked home Xherdan Shaqiri’s low cross.
The 25-year-old’s celebrations were understandably muted, but his goal was nevertheless vital for Switzerland, who will be aiming to at least match their quarter-final appearance at Euro 2020 last summer. Cameroon had the upper hand in the first half but Switzerland started the second half well,
with Embolo’s goal coming in the 48th minute.
Switzerland coach Yakin said: “Of course, you need patience. It
was a mature performance. Of course there is some uncertainty in a World Cup, not everything can go well from the start, but I’m happy with the possession, with how we got it converted.
“Maybe 1-0 or 2-0 is not sufficient for my taste, maybe we could have scored more goals, but all in all we had a mature performance by our team.”
Asked about Embolo’s reaction to scoring, Yakin said: “We know his story, his past in Cameroon, and Breel, you can be friendly up to the kick-off and then afterwards they are going to be your opponents and we need you in our team.
“You’ve got an opponent, of course he wants to score a goal for his team and he fulfilled his task, so we are really happy about this. He also had very good moments during the match, his dynamics and his movements. Breel fulfilled his task well.”
Cameroon coach Rigobert Song said his team had been punished for not being clinical enough.
Karl Toko Ekambi and EricMaxim Choupo-Moting were guilty of wasting good openings.