Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A Song of praise for Breel
CAMEROON BOSS HOLDS NO GRUDGE AGAINST ACE EMBOLO
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CAMEROON boss Rigobert Song hailed Breel Embolo despite the Switzerland striker putting his World Cup dream in jeopardy.
The striker, who was born in the African nation, scored the only goal of the game but his celebrations were markedly subdued.
Song (right), however, does not hold a grudge despite Cameroon now facing a huge fight to qualify for the knockout stage.
“We know each other, he is my little brother,” he said.
“We often speak to each other on the phone and I wanted to congratulate him. It is fair play to do so.
“Just because we are on different teams, it does not mean we are not still brothers.”
Song did admit, however, that he wished Embolo had chosen to play for Cameroon instead.
“He is with the Swiss national team and I would have liked him to be on my side, but that is the way of life,” he added.
“For us the most important thing is how did we play on the pitch, what could we have done better, rather than worrying who was scoring goals against us.”
Switzerland manager Murat Yakin was happy that Embolo was able to put his emotions to one side, hailing the attacker for his ruthless display.
He 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.
“He also had very good moments during the match, his dynamics and his movements. Breel fulfilled his task well.”
It was a tight contest, played out in yet another half-full stadium.
Switzerland had more of the ball in the first half but it was Cameroon who created the better chances. Yet Yann Sommer proved
to be an immovable object between the sticks, the Borussia Monchengladbach goalkeeper making five saves over the course of the 90 minutes to secure his side’s victory.
Eric Choupo-moting, who has been in inspired form for Bayern Munich this season, saw two efforts parried away by the World Cup veteran.
Martin Hongla also had a good opportunity, only for Sonner to rush out to deny him.
Embolo struck in the 48th minute (below) following a pinpoint delivery from Xherdan Shaqiri.
Switzerland were in cruise control after that, and able to secure the win with relative ease.
Yakin said: “Maybe we could have scored more goals, but all in all we had a mature performance by our team.”