Jack Hendry’s early red card set Scotland on course for defeat, as Switzerland cruised to a 3-0 victory in Sébastien Pocognoli’s first home game in charge. Chris Little reports from Hampden.
Pocognoli made three changes from Saturday’s goalless draw with Slovenia, handing Brøndby skipper Luis Binks his Scotland debut, with Kieron Bowie also making his first start for his country. Nathan Patterson also came into the side. Stephen Welsh, Aaron Hickey and Robbie Ure all dropped to the bench.
Switzerland arrived in Glasgow’s south side after a 3-0 victory away in Skopje against North Macedonia. Head Coach Murat Yakin made just one alteration to his line-up, with Michel Aebischer starting on the right wing in place of Fabian Rieder.
Scotland were hoping for a first win under their new manager, with Pocognoli calling for his team to be aggressive and take control of the game in front of the Hampden crowd. Unfortunately for Scotland, that plan lasted just eight minutes.
First Half
Scotland started brightly, pressing high and forcing Switzerland back in the opening stages.
However, the momentum quickly disappeared when Dan Ndoye broke through and was pulled down by Jack Hendry just outside of the penalty area.
A lengthy VAR check overturned the Serbian Referee’s initial penalty decision, but Hendry’s yellow card was upgraded to a red for denying a clear goalscoring oppurtunity. Scotland were down to ten men before the match had properly settled.
Pocognoli immediately brought a premature end to Kieron Bowie’s first start in a Scotland jersey, leaving Oli McBurnie as Scotland’s lone striker. The Sassuolo forward had to be sacrificed after Hendry’s sending off, but nonetheless showed good signs of powerful striker play in his brief cameo. After being played through by a brilliantly threaded ball by Billy Gilmour, Bowie outmuscled Remo Freuler and drove Scotland forward, delivering a low cross into the Swiss box. The cross was ultimately cleared, but showed the Scotland support that there are potentially a lot of good things to come from Bowie in the future.
Ricardo Rodriguez made the numerical advantage count almost instantly, curling the resulting free kick beyond Angus Gunn to give Switzerland the lead in the twelfth minute.
Despite the Swiss having the man advantage, the hosts created multiple opportunities in and around their opponents penalty area. Billy Gilmour played a great ball which picked out skipper Andy Robertson, whose cross asked the question of the Swiss defence and was forced behind for the first of a succession of Scotland corners.
Just before the break, debutant Luis Binks was booked after fouling Remo Freuler with one minute of the half remaining. The new boss also showed that he is not shy of a protest, as he too got his name taken by the Serbian official.
Scotland fought hard and battled to stay within reach before the break, but Switzerland controlled much of the ball and carried much more of a threat than the hosts.
HT: Scotland 0-1 Switzerland
Second Half
The Swiss picked up where they left off after the interval, and doubled their advantage ten minutes into the second half. Dan Ndoye found space on the right before sending a low ball across the box, with Nico Elvedi arriving to finish and making it 2-0 to the visitors.
Pocognoli turned to his bench in search of a response, bringing Ryan Christie, Robbie Ure and Ben Gannon-Doak on, replacing Billy Gilmour, Oli McBurnie and Nathan Patterson. Despite opting for creativity from the bench, Pocognoli’s team struggled to turn their efforts into any clear-cut attacking opportunities.
Angus Gunn managed to pull off a couple of great saves just after the hour mark to keep Scotland’s slender hopes alive going into the latter stages.
Scotland then gave away a foul just outside of their box in the 72nd minute, which Stephen Welsh was shown yellow for, however Burnley forward Zeki Amdouni’s resulting free kick was a poor effort which sailed over the bar.
Switzerland remained composed and continued to exploit the space created by having an extra man on the pitch. With eight minutes remaining, Dan Ndoye found himself in acres of space yet again, and cut it back to Zeki Amdouni who rifled it straight through the palms of Gunn. The San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper should have done better despite the pace on the strike. The Switzerland lead was extended to three goals.
Scotland tried to stay positive despite the match being out of sight, and still tried to play forward and give Switzerland something to defend late on. With seven minutes left of the ninety, John McGinn did well to drive down the left flank however his attempted cross was blocked by the Swiss defence.
On his return to Scotland, former Rangers striker Cedric Itten thought he had added a fourth to the visitors tally in stoppage time, with a close range header hitting the back of the net. However, the linesman’s flag went up after it was judged that the ball had gone out of play for a goal kick, and Scotland’s deficit remained at three.
It proved to be a comfortable night for the Swiss with the visitors registering 21 shots across the 90 minutes compared to Scotland’s 1 effort on goal, making it a night to forget for them.
FT: Scotland 0-3 Switzerland
Post Match
Pocognoli refused to place the blame solely on Jack Hendry, insisting the dismissal was a collective responsibility.
“The red card of Jack is all of our red card. We stay together.”
The Belgian Head Coach admitted to feeling “sad” and frustrated by the way his first Hampden match unfolded, but praised his ten-man side for continuing to compete.
“They did their best, to be honest. They had the great attitude to stick together, try to have the moment in transition or set pieces or something, but it never happened because Switzerland is a good side as well and they didn’t give anything away.”
For Switzerland, the victory makes it two wins from two in Group B1, with six goals scored and none conceded. Even after two games, they have proved why they are a side that are capable of reaching the quarter finals of major tournaments, which they achieved at the World Cup in North America this past summer, where they were beaten 3-1 after extra time by the then-world champions Argentina.
Scotland remain on one point and without a goal from their opening two matches. The defeat also leaves Pocognoli with plenty to address, despite the early dismissal having a considerable impact on proceedings on the night.
Scotland now travel to Skopje to play North Macedonia on Saturday, before coming back to Hampden to host Slovenia three days later. Pocognoli will be looking for a repsonse, but more importantly, his first victory in charge of Scotland.
