Everything you need to know about die Frauen
The Swiss national team (Credit: Anders Henrikson/Wikipedia)
Wales are possibly only one game away from the 2023 World Cup but standing in their way is Switzerland.
After successfully beating Bosnia & Herzegovina at the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday night, attention now turns to Tuesday night.
The team we have to beat is Switzerland. Since playing their first competitive game in 1972, in recent times the Swiss team has gone from strength to strength, and here’s everything you need to know about them.
Competition Pedigree
I guess the first question really is, how good are they? Let’s first look at their record of getting to tournaments.
Up until 2015, the Swiss had never been to a major tournament, but in the past seven years gone to the 2015 World Cup in Canada and have been to the 2017 and 2021 European Championships.
On the world stage, they impressed by getting through their group, before getting knocked out by hosts Canada 1-0 in the round of 16.
In the 2017 European Championships, they came third in their group with 4 points. Beating Iceland, drawing to France and losing to Iceland.
In the most recent championships in England, they once again came third in their group, this time only picking up one point. That came against Portugal, with two losses to Sweden and the Netherlands.
World Cup qualification
So how has this qualification gone for our Swiss counterparts? As you can imagine, it’s been a solid performance from the Frauen.
They found themselves in Group G along with Italy, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, and Moldova, and they finished in second place in the group.
Die Schweiz won eight, drawn one and lost one. That lost came against Italy and their draw came against Romania. Meaning they impressively triumphed over a good Italian side this campaign.
They scored 44 and only conceded 4, a record that would strike fear into any opponent.
Manager
The Swiss are managed by Nils Nielsen.
Born in Greenland, he has only managed within national setups. Beginning with the Denmark U18 team before transitioning to manage the Danish women’s side.
Under his tenure, the Danes came second in Euro 2017, losing out to the Netherlands.
After a brief stint as assistant manager of China, he took the Swiss job in 2018.
Players to Watch
Perhaps the name most familiar to Welsh fans is Lia Wälti. The Swiss captain is a mainstay in the Arsenal team and is an influential midfielder for Switzerland.
Up front, they have a wealth of experience in two centurions. The first is Ramona Bachmann. The PSG forward has played at the highest level for years now and has scored goals wherever she goes. In 128 appearances for the Swiss, she has scored 56 goals. She also had a very good European Championships this summer.
Their other centurion is Ana-Maria Crnogorčević. Currently playing for Champions League runners-up Barcelona, Crnogorčević mainly plays down the wing. But like Bachmann, she is a goal scorer, putting the ball in the net 67 times in 133 appearances for her country.
Stadium
The stadium where the match will be taking place is the Letzigrund.
Home of two Swiss giants (FC Zurich and Grasshoppers) it holds 26,104 and is a fitting venue for such a big occasion.
What to expect?
On paper, this is a difficult matchup obviously. The fact that they have recently started qualifying for major tournaments, have a manager who has tournament experience and players who play in the best leagues in the world, it’s certainly a match Wales will go into as underdogs.
However, there are positives to take. They have played 11 matches so far this year and have only won two. They have also drawn against the likes of Northern Ireland and Portugal this year, teams who are on either a similar level or maybe slightly worse than Wales.
If you look at their games in the recent European Championships too, the Swiss are an expansive team who like to attack, which will undoubtedly suit Gemma Grainger’s side.
The likes of Carrie Jones and Ceri Holland will find space down the wings and will have chances throughout the game.
Yes, we will be underdogs, but we can go into this with an air of confidence. And if we win? My word, it will be bendigedig!
