Andy Brassell: Impressive Switzerland have come a long way since qualifying frustrations

A lot of people have said Switzerland are really organised this tournament but that definitely was not the case six months ago.

They were in a bit of a mess in qualifying, relinquishing a two-goal lead at home to Romania to draw 2-2 and they lost the reverse fixture 1-0 in Bucharest in November. 

It was a challenging qualifying campaign and head coach Murat Yakin even had a public row with Granit Xhaka, who has been flying for club and country.

And so the key thing for them was Yakin getting help, namely assistant Giorgio Contini, who has got a load of experience in the Swiss Super League. It's a bit like when Bryan Robson got help from Terry Venables at Middlesbrough.

They went on to defend better in the back half of qualifying and the way they came out of the traps against Hungary in their Euro 2024 opener set the tone for this tournament.

Before that game, the question was how will Switzerland score goals? They answered that with a guy who has played about ten minutes of international football in Kwadwo Duah.

They establish control without possession and a ton of efforts on goal and you know when they get the chance to take opportunities, they have the fluidity and options to do so. They have goal threats all over the pitch.

Against Germany, they had the perfect plan and were about 30 seconds away from winning the group, which no one thought possible beforehand. I have been really impressed with them.

The key against England is Xhaka has to be fit. He had that issue in training earlier in the week and if he is not 100 per cent at it, Switzerland could have a problem.

The Swiss are about collective strength rather than relying on individuals but he is an irreplaceable player at the peak of his career for club and country. He would arguably be a bigger loss than Jude Bellingham or Harry Kane would be for England.

How Switzerland deal with England's possession will be what decides this game, though. Can England find the ingenuity they had - which everyone has forgotten about - in that first half hour against Serbia?

If they can stretch Switzerland the way they did early on against Serbia in their opener, that will give Yakin's side something to think about. 

When it comes to England potentially playing a back three, it feels more like Gareth Southgate is having a look at Switzerland rather than just being brave.

That is not a bad thing - it does not seem as though Switzerland have been tested in those wide areas.

But I think Switzerland have flexibility there. Manual Akanji and Ricardo Rodriguez have played a bit of football at full-back and that adaptability should not be a problem for them.

Turkey should target Dutch deficiency

Turkey are an inferior team to the Netherlands with inferior players but in terms of matchups, it looks good for the Turkish.

Coming into the tournament, when looking at the traditional big nations, the Netherlands looked as though they had the best defence which is unusual given you associate the Dutch with ball players, attacking flair and being daring.

Before the tournament, there was even the argument the Netherlands have better defenders on the bench than England have in their starting lineup.

That said, they have defended poorly throughout with the exception of the win over Romania, who did not really threaten them. Once the Netherlands got on top in that match, they were properly on top.

They did kept a clean sheet against France but Les Bleus missed a ton of chances and the biggest issue facing the Netherlands is they do not have that player who can sit in front of the back four with Marten de Roon and Frenkie de Jong injured.

That has left them defensively vulnerable and among the players who will occupy that space for Turkey are Arda Guler, Baris Yilmaz and Kenan Yildiz, who is not an out-and-out striker. Those players will definitely think they can create chances in this match.

In their win over Austria in the last 16, what surprised me was how Turkey won. The kind of team they are means they will always give up chances but against Austria, they had control, partly given to them by Merih Demiral's early goal.

They not only controlled the game when they were in front but they did not panic when Austria pulled one goal back.

Turkey also won without star midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu but his return is massively important.

Calhanoglu is an attacking threat but also has the ability to play in a deeper role. Funnily enough, he is probably the kind of player the Netherlands could do with in this tournament - he would solve a lot of their problems despite having tough start to his international career - and the Inter midfielder is arguably enjoying the best season of his life.

It might not be about to end just yet.

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