Switzerland feel they did "a great job" of compensating for the loss of captain Granit Xhaka and key striker Breel Embolo as they head to Hampden to face Scotland on the back of an impressive 3-0 win in North Macedonia. Sunderland midfielder Xhaka was omitted from their squad last week, with the 34-year-old reportedly having confessed to using a fake certificate to avoid a mandatory vaccination during the Covid pandemic. Xhaka is under investigation by Swiss prosecutors.
Then, on the eve of their Nations League opener in Skopje, the Swiss Football Association announced Atlanta United striker Embolo, 29, had informed it "about the matter concerning his private life that became public in the media today". Embolo, who moved to Major League Soccer in August from Rennes, had been suspended for Saturday's opener anyway after his red card against Argentina. However, he will not now join the squad as planned in Glasgow and he and Xhaka will also miss matches at home to Slovenia on 3 October and North Macedonia three days later.
Why does Robbie Ure have Robbie Ure on his Scotland shirt? From turgid to thrusting - mixed start for new Scotland Gilmour catalyst, impressive Welsh, but same issue for Scotland? "The national team will complete its current training camp without him," the Swiss FA stated "to ensure the team's focus remains firmly" on the Nations League matches.
They did that in some style on Saturday evening and, in Embolo's absence, Remo Freuler opened the scoring with his first international goal in almost two years. Asked about Xhaka, the 34-year-old, who joined Olympiacos this summer, said: "We don't need to talk about Granit. He's a player who can't be replaced.
As a team, we have to make up for that. "We did a great job of that against North Macedonia. Let's hope it continues this way and that Granit comes back soon.
"We had a few new players and they all did very well. It was a perfect match for us really." It took the dominant Swiss just 22 minutes to take the lead, Zeki Amdouni heading into Freuler's path to fire low into the corner from 15 yards. Burnley midfielder Amdouni followed up with two similar finishes of his own, three minutes before half-time and then with just over a quarter-of-an-hour to go, although goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski should have done better with the first.
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