Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic has defended his decision to take off Granit Xhaka with 11 minutes remaining of their Euro 2020 qualifier with Denmark by revealing the Arsenal midfielder had an injury problem.
The Swiss were winning 3-0 when Xhaka, who’d made it 2-0 on 66 minutes with a rasping right-foot effort from the edge of the box, left the field of play.
Granit Xhaka's stunning goal. #Xhakaboompic.twitter.com/H7UAwDHnvJ
— AFCMike (@AFCPW) March 26, 2019
He must have thought it was job done when he sat down only for his teammates to concede three times after the 83rd minute. Henrik Dalsgaard headed home Denmark’s unlikely leveller deep into stoppage time.
Given Xhaka’s absence appeared to trigger the collapse, Petkovic was asked about the substitution.
“Xhaka could not stay on the pitch,” he told the press afterwards. “He asked me ten minutes before to be replaced.
“Granit had adductor problems, he could not do any more.”
With Newcastle visiting the Emirates, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that the problem isn’t too serious.
We’ll likely get an update on the status of the squad on Friday when Unai Emery tackles his pre-game press conference.
I hope this is their coach making excuses. Alternatively, Thanks for trying to protect our player even if it cost you the win.
We need Granit he is having an excellent season.
COYG!
They were 3-0 up and Granit had a yellow from previous game. Thought they felt comfortable to protect him from picking another yellow. Was watching the game with half an eye and thought Xhaka was strong at the bottom of the midfield. Subbing him might have changed the dynamic a lot as he’s one of their best and the captain.
His goal was great. Just love to watch him in the swiss team
Can hardly put it down to one player that a team shipped 3 goals in 11 minutes.
Could if it was mustafi
Not good news, hopefully sokratis’ injury rumours are inaccurate
watched the game where sokratis and kola were playing against each other last night. didn’t notice anything. hope they both are going to be fit.
Offtopic but our former physio Ben Ashworth has joined Sparta Prague – Rosicky’s homeclub and a rival of Slavia Prague (my beloved hometown club 🙂 ) who Chelsea meets in Europa League. Rosicky still pulling the strings at Arsenal
Ben is a lovely bloke. He was very kind to offer my son and me two tickets, via a mutual friend, to see a game at The Emirates once and we had access to the player’s guest lounge beforehand. My young lad got the chance to meet Pat Rice, Aaron Ramsey and Szczesny. Best of luck Ben!
Happy to see other Czechs are visiting this website too! )
We seem to be picking up several injuries in these internationals. Let’s hope all the injured players recover fully soon as the evidence so far doesn’t suggest we’ve the necessary quality across the squad to compensate, and all our games are key games now of course.
Is Mustafi Swiss, now?
Seems fair. You can’t legislate for conceding three goals after the 80th minute, that one’s on the players imo
The Internationals are like watching a car crash in slo mo…….. we dont need any more injuries.