France may have multiple injuries to deal with in their backline and manager Didier Deschamps may be forced to change his back four to back three but for Switzerland manager Vladimir Petkovic, the focus remains on winning their Euro 2020 Round of 16 encounter on Monday.
After the culmination of the group stage, Deschamps confirmed that left-backs Lucas Hernandez and Lucas Digne suffered injuries. This could means that Adrien Rabiot could be forced to move further back.
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“I don’t think this affects us,” Petkovic told a news conference. “These are problems for Didier Deschamps but he has so many good players to chose from.”
“We have to test ourselves, prepare to find our own game and deliver.”
Switzerland have a massive hurdle to cross and in order to win, they mustn’t let history repeat as they have been knocked out in the last 16 stage in their last three major tournaments, including losing 5-4 on penalties to Poland at Euro 2016.
Petkovic, who has been in charge since 2014, has been in the dugout for two of those defeats, at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.
“With all due respect to our opponents, we will try to advance tomorrow because at this stage you cannot go back. The only way is forward,” he said.
“For sure the game against Poland at Euro 2016 we deserved to progress, and on penalties you need to be lucky. We learnt from that game, and also from the defeat against Sweden in the 2018 World Cup,” he said.
“What is important is to keep the right attitude and believe in our strengths. With opponents like France if you give 100% and they give 100% then that’s just not enough.”
“We have to go beyond our limits, beyond 100% and hope France stay a few percentages under us,” Petkovic said.
Switzerland narrowly qualified for the knockout stage after finishing third in their group, with one win, a draw and a loss.
“We didn’t start well this tournament, but then we qualified,” said Swiss captain Granit Xhaka. “We will need to do our best for 120 minutes, and then we’ll see if it’s enough.”
“What we want is to advance after three times eliminated in the Round of 16. This team is ready to make history.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
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