Switzerland draw with Romania 1-1

Admir Mehmedi’s spectacular volley denied Romania a first win at Euro 2016 as Switzerland snatched a 1-1 draw.

What’s Next: Group A leaders Switzerland will be confident of qualifying for the knockout stages, despite having to play hosts France on Sunday, meanwhile Romania will be looking to record their first EURO 2016 victory on the same day against Albania.

Striker Haris Seferovic, who has struggled at Eintracht Frankfurt this season, wasted two simple chances in the first half, while his team mates also snatched at efforts when they had more time or over-elaborated when decisive action was required.

Switzerland responded immediately, with Xhaka seeing a shot from the edge of the area deflect off a defender, and then Seferovic missing first big chance of the game – he broke free of Chiriches, but the chance went begging, with whistling the ball past the keeper’s left-hand post.

“If we had a chance to substitute players we thought we’d be able to substitute, we’d have played better”.

Switzerland battled for an equaliser and found a way through when Admir Mehmedi lashed home a loose ball from a corner in the second half.

Switzerland were then made to pay just two minutes later as Romania took the lead from the spot, Stancu stepping up to send Yann Sommer the wrong way after Stephan Lichtsteiner had tugged back Alexandru Chipciu in the box.

“That’s not who I am as a coach”, said the Bosnia-born coach.

Even when the second half began Switzerland were still asleep and Johan Djourou had to make a crucial intervention to stop Claudi Keseru from converting Gabriel Torje’s cross at the near post.

A positive start from Switzerland paid benefits inside five minutes when Shaqiri’s in-swinging corner from the benefit was met by the head of Schar, who guided the ball into the back of the net to leave Berisha shuddering at dainty air.

Vladimir Petković, Switzerland coachRomania could have beaten France, so we need to improve on our own below-par performance against Albania. “If he just stays with his man and stays goal side, he doesn’t score”.

“From my point of view I think we dominated the 90 minutes”.

It looked like this game would have ended in a historic Romanian win but the writing was always on the wall and Switzerland are too good a team not to score a goal. Amongst the games we are covering over the next few days are Ireland v Belgium, England v Wales, Germany v Poland and Ukraine v Northern Ireland, as well as being in Versailles reporting from the Ireland camp.