Crunch time for football juniors

Swiss players celebrate Sunday's first leg win over Ukraine Keystone

Switzerland's under-21 football team will on Wednesday be attempting to win a place in the finals of the European Championships for the first time in their history.

The young Swiss side emerged as unbeaten group leaders from the tournament’s initial qualifying stage before going on to beat Ukraine 2-1 away in Sunday’s first leg playoff action.

That result means that Switzerland can now make sure of a place in the finals with a win, a draw or even a 1-0 defeat when the two sides meet again for the second leg in Aarau.

Danger upfront

Ukraine are expected to pose more danger upfront in the return leg, following the return from suspension of Shakhtor Donetsk striker Oleksil Bielik, but under-21 coach Bernard Challendes believes there will plenty of other threats too.

“There is the return of Bielik to consider, certainly,” Challendes said after Switzerland’s first leg victory, “but we also have to deal with the menace posed by (Mainz forward) Andrej Woronin who not only scored the Ukrainian goal on Sunday, but also showed himself to be a real handful.”

“As long as were letting the ball run in Kiev, we had everything under control,” Challendes added. “But when we started kicking long passes we immediately put ourselves under pressure. Our qualities lie in creative play. Whenever we have concentrated on that we have been unbeatem.”

Cash bonus

As well as playing for the honour of achieving what their coach has described as “a fantastic exploit”, the Swiss players will earn a cash bonus of SFr 7,500 ($4520) from the football association if they qualify for the finals. Challendes insisted though that the money wouldn’t be the main motivation for his young stars.

“If they can qualify for the finals, they will all get the chance to put themselves on the international stage,” Challendes pointed out. “That’s worth a lot more to their careers than the bonus money.”

Bid boost?

A successful qualification campaign could also be of huge benefit to the Swiss football association which has launched a joint bid with Austria to host the senior European Championships in 2008.

Should Switzerland qualify for the under-21 finals in May 2002, the association could put itself forward to host that event as well, allowing the senior bid team a chance to test their plans while simultaneously publicising the 2008 project.

Swiss football association spokesman Pierre Benoit told swissinfo that the organisation would be discussing a possible bid to host the under-21 finals at a meeting later this month.

by Mark Ledsom with agencies