Akanji put the Swiss in the lead in the 21st minute in Zaragoza. For “La Roja”, Alba equalized after a change of sides, but Embolo responded three minutes later. The Swiss beat Spain for the first time since the 2010 World Cup and after six games, they did it for the first time on the opponent’s field. They successfully followed up on a 1:0 home win over the Portuguese in June.
“Congratulations to the players for beating Portugal and Spain, where we won for the first time ever. We can only beat big opponents if we stay compact and learn from our mistakes. It’s history, I don’t care much about statistics. We need to show similar performances at home in front of the fans, Yakina was quoted by UEFA.com.
“We were very well organized, we stayed firm and the goals scored came at the right moment. We took a lot from the mistakes in the previous games. We started better, that helped us a lot in the final result,” said the 48-year-old native of Basel.
Spain lost at home in the competition for only the second time since 2003. “In the first half we were not at our best, we were very inaccurate and played without emphasis. In the second half we created a lot more scoring chances, but when they made it 2-1, they took wind out of our sails,” said defender César Azpilicueta.
The team from the Iberian Peninsula is two points behind leaders Portugal in Group A2, who won 4:0 in Prague’s Eden on Saturday. They will compete for a place in the Final Four in a duel on Tuesday in Braza.
“We have to improve a lot to be ready for the Portuguese. It seems that we like to complicate everything in Spain,” stated Azpilicueta. “Portugal has first-class players, we have drawn with them four times in a row. It will be difficult to win against them and a draw is not enough for us, so we will try for three points,” added coach Luis Enrique.
