Swiss players celebrate Eren Derdiyok's goal against Montenegro
Keystone
Switzerland have beaten Montenegro 2-0 in the eighth and final qualification match for the 2012 European Football Championship.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
Despite goals by Eren Derdiyok in the 51st minute and Stephan Lichtsteiner in the 65th, the Swiss will not be travelling to Poland and Ukraine in July. A shock 2-0 loss to Wales on Friday meant they could not overtake Montenegro to claim a play-off spot.
England thus finish top of Group G with 18 points, followed by Montenegro on 12, Switzerland on 11, Wales on 9 and Bulgaria on 5.
Switzerland won three of their qualification matches, drew two and lost three. They scored 12 goals and conceded ten.
Switzerland dominated their opponents in Basel on Friday but are paying dearly for inconsistency throughout their Euro campaign, notably a 1-0 defeat to Montenegro 12 months ago, a goalless draw with Bulgaria in March and the loss to Wales on Friday.
Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld and his team now turn their thoughts towards the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, qualification for which kicks off in September.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss lick wounds after Euro 2012 flop
This content was published on
In what should have been a crucial deciding match for second place in Group G, Switzerland’s young team will complete their Euro 2012 qualifying on Tuesday in a meaningless friendly against a Montenegro team which pipped them to the post last week. The Swiss had hoped to set up a match for the second place…
This content was published on
Despite conceding goals from Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale in the 60th and 71st minutes, the Swiss would still have been all right as long as England, playing at the same time, beat Montenegro. If that were the case, all eyes would turn to the crucial match in Basel on Tuesday between Switzerland and Montenegro.…
This content was published on
The Swiss national U17 football team owes its success in Nigeria to players from 12 countries on three continents and a highly respected youth training programme for Swiss talent.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.