Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Swiss boss defends subbing injured Xhaka before collapse

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.

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.

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Onenil

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!

Dombo

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.

Dombo

His goal was great. Just love to watch him in the swiss team

The Wenger Zip

Can hardly put it down to one player that a team shipped 3 goals in 11 minutes.

Goonerink

Could if it was mustafi

Hantal

Not good news, hopefully sokratis’ injury rumours are inaccurate

AFL

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.

towelie

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

DAF

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!

yen

Happy to see other Czechs are visiting this website too! )

Goonereality

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.

Brian W

Is Mustafi Swiss, now?

renaissancerosicky

Seems fair. You can’t legislate for conceding three goals after the 80th minute, that one’s on the players imo

Shank

The Internationals are like watching a car crash in slo mo…….. we dont need any more injuries.

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