Serbia 2-3 Switzerland: Talking points as controversy looms again over Switzerland's deserved triumph

Switzerland confirmed their place in the Round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar by emerging deservedly victorious in a difficult and thrilling game against Serbia in the last round of Group G.

Xherdan Shaqiri opened the scoring with a deflected shot in the 20th minute, Aleksandar Mitrovic equalized with a perfectly struck header six minutes later, Dusan Vlahovic scored his own to put Serbia ahead in the 35th minute , and Breel Embolo scored the back-level score just before the break. It was finally Remo Freuler who took advantage of a superb flick from Ruben Vargas to score the Swiss' winning goal.

Obviously needing three points to get out of the group, Serbia wanted to attack from the start and take matters into their own hands, but they probably didn't expect Switzerland, who would probably have taken the next step with a draw too, to do the same. The result was that the Swiss had two glorious chances to score in the first minute, but Vanja Milinkovic-Savic made two great saves.

The game was completely open, with plenty of good attacking football and questionable defending on both sides, and it was still only a matter of time before one team or the other scored. Apart from the four goals in the first half, there were also plenty of chances, the best of which arguably came from Andrija Zivkovic who hit the post for Serbia just outside the box.

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But the situation was very different after the break. Freuler's game-winning goal came less than three minutes into the second half, and his side later nearly killed the contest completely through Embolo and substitute Christian Fassnacht, but Vanja Milinkovic-Savic denied it. latter while the former chipped his point-blank effort over the bar.

Tactically, Switzerland often succeeded in overloading the flanks and most of their opportunities came through these corridors. If he remains in charge of the Serbian team, Dragan Stojkovic will have to find a way to remedy this particular problem.

Granit Xhaka has always been a controversial figure on the pitch, especially against Serbia. He couldn't resist provoking the Serbian players and fans in 2018, and it was the same again this time, despite reportedly promising the Swiss federation to refrain from doing so. anything like that.

In the 65th minute, Mitrovic wanted a penalty for a shot from behind by Fabian Schar which obviously prevented him from shooting, but the Fulham forward fell far too late and too dramatically for it to be awarded. And as the Serbian bench players and staff stood up, Xhaka gave them an extremely rude gesture.

A number of Serbian substitutes rushed towards the Arsenal midfielder, who then simply ran away and let his teammates sort things out for him. That did the trick; a full-scale brawl broke out, leaving the Serbian players livid with anger and clearly unable to concentrate on the football.

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Xhaka was at the center of another controversial situation later on, when he forced Serbian defender Nikola Milenkovic to push him hard and was nearly thrown over the trade board in the stands. He received a late yellow card for that, and not content with that, he tried to provoke Mitrovic into reacting as well. Mitrovic's reaction, however, was strictly verbal.

There is no doubt that Serbia have shown a degree of immaturity. It seems the lesson of 2018 was not learned and the same mistake was made again. They were completely shaken by Xhaka's appalling behavior, and from that point on, it was pretty clear how the game would end. They were completely unable to function under pressure.

But on the other hand, such behavior on a football pitch really shouldn't be allowed to fly. Xhaka is certainly no stranger to being reserved and even kicked out; his stats in this regard speak volumes about his passion which often melts into blatant disrespect and unsportsmanlike conduct. This, however, was much worse - he seemed in full control of what he was doing. It wasn't passion, it was planned in advance, and having fined him four years ago, FIFA really needs to throw the book at him this time.

They probably won't, though. He has already been declared the man of the match. Well, he was definitely the man behind the moment that settled the game.

Anyway, Switzerland prevailed and will desert...