The Swiss lock is back in Qatar. On the field with a team whose great strength lies in its defensive organization, and behind the scenes also with double-locked communication before the crucial match once morest Serbia.
Captain Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri, the two scorers in Kaliningrad’s 2-1 success at the 2018 World Cup, will not speak before the reunion once morest Serbia. On D-2, the communication department of the Swiss Football Association (ASF) appointed Djibril Sow for the daily press briefing. Thursday at the pre-match press conference organized under the aegis of FIFA, Yann Sommer will be alongside Murat Yakin.
ASF also specifies that Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri will not cross the mixed zone following the match. She is ready to assume the financial consequences of such a decision since “retaining” 2 players just following the final whistle goes once morest FIFA regulations.
Football above all
“We only want to talk regarding football“, insists for days Pierluigi Tami. The director of the national teams specifies that the ASF and the Serbian Federation met this spring at the highest level to advocate appeasement before this meeting. “The political component that may exist around this match does not interest us, continues the Ticino. For us, it’s all regarding sports.“
Pierluigi Tami and the ASF cannot hold another speech, no matter how soothing, under penalty of putting embers back on a fire that has never been extinguished. On June 22, 2018, Granit Xhaka, with that splendid 52nd-minute strike that responded to Aleksandar Mitrovic’s opener, and Xherdan Shaqiri, with that fantastic rush in added time, not only gave a priceless victory in their colors.
The two men had, above all, humiliated the Serbs by reminding them of their roots. They had, thus, mimed the Albanian eagle during the celebration of their goal to expose themselves both to the wrath of an opponent who has never admitted the independence of Kosovo and to sanctions from FIFA.
Granit Xhaka’s confession
Months later, Granit Xhaka was to admit that this evening in Kaliningrad had literally emptied him. “This match cost us too much strength“, he admitted. For Xherdan Shaqiri and him, it is as if the World Cup had ended on June 22 at 11:00 p.m. Victims of insults fed for days on social networks, they were, indeed, both of them were very transparent both once morest Costa Rica (2-2) during the last group match in Nizhny Novgorod and during the round of 16 (0-1) once morest Sweden in St Petersburg.
“I’m 30 today. I became a calmer person“, indicates Granit Xhaka. This wisdom that comes with age will undoubtedly help him to approach Friday’s meeting with the necessary height. He knows, however, that the total “blackout” decreed by the ASF will not put them, Xherdan Shaqiri and him, sheltered from opposing provocations. sort of appetizer that announces, one might fear, the worst.
ats/nm
Read also: Green light for Shaqiri and Okafor
