Switzerland’s 5-2 victory over Belgium is easily one of the best matches of the UEFA Nations League so far.
The Swiss, playing at home, needed to beat Belgium by two clear goals in order to win the group and progress to the semi-finals being held in Portugal next year.
That was a hard enough job on its own. Belgium are currently the highest ranked team by FIFA and finished third at the World Cup, the Swiss aren’t considered close to that level.
So when Thorgan Hazard put Belgium 2-0, that looked to be that. Switzerland would have to score four without reply.
They didn’t score four, they got five. Belgium’s midfield and defence was all over the place, and Toby Alderweireld has been speaking of his shock at the match.
The Tottenham defender wasn’t one of the most heavily criticised in the aftermath, at least compared to Dedryck Boyata and Vincent Kompany, but he won’t have been happy with his performance.
HLN quote the Spurs player as saying: “I have no words for this. We made too many individual mistakes. We were 0-2, then you always have to play that game. But then we gave away a stupid penalty. That equaliser was also stupid. Suddenly the Swiss began to believe in it again.
“All those individual mistakes. Normally this never happens to us. We perform very consistently, but today we fell through completely. An off day.”
That off day leaves Belgium out of a competition they had genuine hopes of winning.
