FIFA World Cup 2018: 3 Things that went Right for Switzerland against Brazil
Brazil were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland in their opening Group E encounter of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Rostov. The Selecao opened the scoring through a stunning long-range strike from Philippe Coutinho in the 20th minute.
But the Swiss did not fall behind in spite of conceding early on and struck back through Steven Zuber, who headed in home from a Xherdan Shaqiri corner to equalize for Switzerland in the 50th minute.
The stalemate leaves both the teams tied on one point each, two points behind Group leaders Serbia in Group E with Brazil scheduled to play Costa Rica in their next outing whereas Switzerland will clash against Serbia.
On that note, here is a look at the 3 things that went right for Switzerland:
#3 Keeping Neymar quiet
Brazil head coach Tite had admitted a day prior to the game that Neymar was not fully fit for the game on Sunday Evening. However, he did play the entire 90 but did struggle at times as Switzerland did an excellent job of shutting down the PSG superstar.
Neymar had four attempts at goal and completed five dribbles but the tactics of the Swiss to keep the 26-year-old quiet worked. This was employed by regularly fouling him, that saw his momentum get disrupted several times as he was barred from taking control of the proceedings single-handedly.
This further impacted the game as Neymar let the pressure affect him and this resulted in him becoming desperate that saw him commit a lot of errors when he took unnecessary shots instead of passing it out to his teammates.
This led to the growing of Neymar's grievance as he was flagged offside and started losing the ball in the attacking half and was dispossessed a total of eight times. Switzerland came with clear intentions totally focused on Brazil's ace and it resulted in them getting a well-earned draw as Neymar's performance affected his teammates as well.