It Has Been an Amazing 'Sommer', Roger Federer Praises Switzerland's Efforts After Euro 2020 Exit

Switzerland’s impressive run at the European Championship ended last night when they went down to Spain in the penalty shootout. Fabian Schaer, Manuel Akanji and Ruben Vargas missed their spot kicks as Spain won the shootout 3-1.

The match remained tied at 1-1 even at extra time as the Swiss side went down to 10 men with 13 minutes remaining in normal time when midfielder Remo Freuler was controversially dismissed for a tackle on Gerard Moreno.

Spain had taken the lead in the match when Denis Zakaria put through his own net, but Switzerland, who were the better side for long periods equalised  in the 68th minute through Xherdan Shaqiri.

Swiss players broke down in n tears as soon as Mikel Oyarzabal hit the winning penalty past Yann Sommer. Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic and a few Spanish players were also seen consoling the Swiss players after the match.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s tennis maestro, Roger Federer took to social media and hailed the inspiring performance put by the Swiss team throughout the tournament. He wrote, ” Danke , It’s been an amazing Sommer guys, thank you, great effort, can’t wait for the World Cup.”

The 20-time Grand Slam champions also congratulated Spain, “Great playing Spain and good luck,” he added.

Switzerland who were in Group A qualified as one of the best third-placed teams in the tournament along with Portugal, Ukraine, Czech Republic. In the group stage they went down to Italy and were held by Wales. However, trhey thrashed Turkey in the last match and sealed their ticket into the knockout phase.

In the round of 16 stage, they did the unthinkable as they knocked out world champions France in a penalty shoot out. It was an epic performance put by the Nati as they scored the eqauliser in the dying minutes of the normal time to take the game into extra time.

Haris Seferovic put Switzerland ahead in the 15th minute as France struggled to make a comeback. Switzerland then missed a penalty early in the second half and that changed their entire complexion of the match. Karim Benzema scored twice in inside four minutes to give France the lead.

Paul Pogba then made it 3-1 in the 75th with a right-foot shot from 20 meters. When it looked like that Swiss are down and out, Seferovic scored his second of the night  in the 81st minute and Gavranovic made it 3-3 right at the death.

It remained 3-3 in the extra-time, as the match moved onto penalty shootout. Yann Sommer then saved Kylian Mbappe’s penalty to knock out France.

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