Shaqiri stepped up to the right quadrant and pinged over the ball, Berisha did what he should not have done, and Schar netted for a sixth worldwide goal on his 21st appearance.
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Xhaka, who excelled at the heart of the Swiss midfield – especially following Albania captain Lorik Cana’s red card – felt both he and his brother delivered strong displays during what was a wholly peculiar experience.
9 minutes before half-time Albania’s luck runs out. He’s been an important player for big clubs in big leagues for 14 years, he’s been the Albanian captain for a decade, and he has 30 more caps than anyone else on the team.
While Granit Xhaka, Ricardo Rodriguez and Haris Seferovic were carving out a reputation as Switzerland’s golden generation in 2009, Schar was working in a bank.
Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka says that his team should be aiming “to make it to the quarter-finals” at Euro 2016.
An affinity between the two nations was well-established off the pitch a long time before they met on it as Switzerland accepted thousands of Kosovar Albanians fleeing the Balkan wars in the 1990s following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
We made the right first step.
I told my parents that we would get Albania – and we did.
“I saw the France v Romania game”.
The Swiss missed a series of scoring chances, with Berisha denying Seferovic on four occasions and Dzemaili hitting the post from a free kick. They both played for Swiss national youth teams before Taulant made a decision to represent Albania at senior level.
Euro 2016 host France opened Group A by defeating Romania 2-1 on Friday.
Switzerland should have doubled their advantage when Haris Seferovic fired straight at the goalkeeper from the edge of the penalty before Albania nearly equalised through Armando Sadiku, who hit his effort straight at Yann Sommer after being playing in on goal by Elseid Hysaj.
The victory was only Switzerland’s second in a Euro finals match (following a 2008 win over Portugal) and puts that nation in a tie with France – a 2-1 victor over Romania on Friday – atop Group A.
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Albania and Switzerland play out the second game of the competition and it will be a battle for the other knockout spots, with France more or less everybody’s unanimous choice to top the group.
