Regular attendees at major tournaments since the turn of the century, Switzerland will be competing at their fourth successive World Cup finals in Russia. Qualifiers for the round of 16 in two of the last three World Cups, and eliminated on penalties by Poland at the same stage of Euro 2016, the Swiss are a resilient bunch and will be targeting another knockout phase qualification, albeit after the toughest of opening matches – against favourites Brazil.
Vladimir Petković’s squad has a wealth of tournament experience, with several players having represented their country at more than one, and they have scored seven World Cup finals goals between them – more than any other European country bar Germany.
That and a glut of other interesting facts and stats about the 23 players in Petković’s squad can be found below.
I am compiling similar information on the other 13 European teams in the build-up to the Big Kick-off on Thursday, June 14. Several other such blogs are already on the site.
Here is the Switzerland squad with the players’ current club, caps and goals:
Goalkeepers
Roman Bürki (Borussia Dortmund, 8/0), Yvon Mvogo (RB Leipzig, 0/0), Yann Sommer (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 35/0)
Defenders
Manuel Akanji (Borussia Dortmund, 6/0), Johan Djourou (Antalyaspor, 74/2), Nico Elvedi (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 5/0), Michael Lang (Basel, 24/2), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Arsenal, 99/8), François Moubandje (Toulouse, 17/0), Ricardo Rodriguez (Milan, 52/4), Fabian Schär (Deportivo La Coruña, 38/7)
Midfielders
Valon Behrami (Udinese, 78/2), Blerim Džemaili (Bologna, 64/9), Gelson Fernandes (Eintracht Frankfurt, 67/2), Remo Freuler (Atalanta, 9/0), Xherdan Shaqiri (Stoke, 69/20), Granit Xhaka (Arsenal, 61/9), Steven Zuber (Hoffenheim, 11/3), Denis Zakaria (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 10/0)
Forwards
Josip Drmic (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 28/10), Breel Embolo (Schalke, 24/3), Mario Gavranovic (Dinamo Zagreb, 13/4), Haris Seferovic (Benfica, 50/11)
The total number of international caps gained by the 23 players is 842. The number of caps gained in competitive fixtures (i.e. World Cup and Euro matches) is 489. The number of caps gained at final tournaments is 109. The number of caps gained at the World Cup finals is 51.
The total number of international goals scored by the 23 players is 96. The number of goals scored in competitive fixtures is 66. The number of goals scored at final tournaments is 9. The number of goals scored at the World Cup finals is 7.
The number of players in the squad appearing at their first final tournament is 4. The number of players appearing at their first World Cup is 8.
There are 17 survivors from the Euro 2016 squad: Bürki, Sommer, Djourou, Elvedi, Lang, Lichtsteiner, Moubandje, Rodriguez, Schär, Behrami, Džemaili, Fernandes, Shaqiri, Xhaka, Zakaria, Embolo and Seferovic.
There are 15 survivors from the 2014 World Cup squad: Bürki, Sommer, Djourou, Lang, Lichtsteiner, Rodriguez, Schär, Behrami, Džemaili, Fernandes, Shaqiri, Xhaka, Drmic, Gavranovic and Seferovic.
There are 4 survivors from the 2010 World Cup squad: Lichtsteiner, Behrami, Fernandes and Shaqiri.
There are 4 survivors from the Euro 2008 squad: Djourou, Lichtsteiner, Behrami and Fernandes.
There are 3 survivors from the 2006 World Cup squad: Djourou, Behrami and Džemaili.
Behrami is attending his sixth final tournament. Three other members of the squad – Djourou, Lichtsteiner and Fernandes – will be travelling to their fifth, while it is a fourth for Džemaili and Shaqiri.
Lichtsteiner has played the most final tournament matches: 14 (seven at the World Cup, seven at the Euro), with double figures having also been reached by three other players – Behrami (13), Djourou (11) and Fernandes (10).
Liechtsteiner and Djourou have both played seven matches at the World Cup finals – the most in the squad.
Only one squad member has yet to play his first competitive international – Mvogo. Gavranovic is the only other player in the 23-man party who made no appearances in 2018 World Cup qualifying.
Ten players have appeared in over 25 competitive internationals. Their records are as follows:
Lichtsteiner – Pld 56 W32 D13! L11 (of which at final tournaments Pld 14 W5 D4! L5)
Behrami – Pld 44 W24 D11! L9 (Pld 13 W5 D3! L5)
Shaqiri – Pld 43 W25 D9! L9 (Pld 9 W3 D4! L2)
Djourou – Pld 40 W25 D9!! L6 (Pld 11 W4 D5!! L2)
Xhaka – Pld 40 W25 D8! L7 (Pld 8 W3 D3! L2)
Rodriguez – Pld 36 W22 D7! L7 (Pld 8 W3 D3! L2)
Džemaili – Pld 36 W23 D8! L5 (Pld 7 W2 D3! L2)
Seferovic – Pld 34 W22 D6! L6 (Pld 8 W3 D3! L2)
Fernandes – Pld 29 W19 D6! L4 (Pld 10 W3 D3! L4)
Schär – Pld 26 W18 D5! L3 (Pld 6 W2 D3! L1)
! draw followed by penalty shoot-out defeat
Three players in the squad are yet to be defeated in a competitive international: Moubandje (W6 D0), Ajanki (W3 D1) and Elvedi (W2 D0).
Shaqiri is the squad’s leading scorer in competitive internationals, with 15 goals, and is the only one in double figures, with Seferovic next in line on nine. Shaqiri and Seferovic share equal billing in terms of World Cup goals with six apiece, half of Shaqiri’s tally provided by his hat-trick against Honduras at the 2014 finals.
Shaqiri is one of five players in the squad to have scored at the World Cup finals. Džemaili, Fernandes, Xhaka and Seferovic have each struck once.
Schär has scored seven times in competitive internationals, finding the net on his debuts in the World Cup qualifiers (v Iceland), the Euro qualifiers (v Lithuania) and the Euro finals (v Albania). He cannot complete the set in Russia as he was a non-scoring participant on his World Cup finals debut against Honduras four years ago.
Another defender, Lang, also scored on both his World Cup qualifying and Euro qualifying debuts, against Albania and San Marino respectively, while Embolo was also on target on his World Cup debut – in the opening 2018 qualifier against Portugal.
All of Seferovic’s nine competitive goals have contributed to victories (seven matches, including the opening 2-1 win v Ecuador at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil).
Seferovic was the only player to feature in all 12 of Switzerland’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers (11 starts, one as a substitute). There were 11 starts for four other players – Sommer, Lichtsteiner, Schär and Xhaka.
Seferovic was also Switzerland’s top scorer in 2018 World Cup qualifying with four goals from a team tally of 24. Fourteen players in total (including four who have not made the squad) found the net, with full-backs Lichtsteiner and Rodriguez both scoring three, the latter’s third, from the penalty spot, proving decisive in the play-off against Northern Ireland.
Switzerland defeated Brazil 1-0 when the two teams last met, in a Basel friendly in August 2013, and there are nine survivors in the Switzerland squad who played for their country in that match – Lichtsteiner, Rodriguez, Behrami, Džemaili, Shaqiri, Xhaka and Seferovic in the starting XI and from the bench Schär and Lang, who were both making their debuts.
Lichtsteiner also made his Switzerland debut against Brazil in Basel – in an earlier friendly in November 2006 (1-2). Djourou and Džemaili (sub) also featured.
Lichtsteiner, from the start, and Fernandes and Shaqiri, both from the bench, played in a 1-0 defeat by Group E rivals Costa Rica in a World Cup warm-up friendly in Sion in June 2010.
None of the 23 players have faced Serbia.
Lang, of FC Basel, is the lone Swiss Super League representative in the party. Ten of the others play in Germany, including four at Borussia Mönchengladbach and two at Borussia Dortmund, with seven other European leagues represented in the squad.
Lichtsteiner’s recent transfer from Juventus to Arsenal, where he will play alongside Xhaka, means that the north London club are the only one outside Germany providing more than one player to Petković’s squad.
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