Shooting the Breeze: World Cup 2010 Day 6 - Group H - Spain vs Switzerland
0-1. Spain expected a win but got turned over by the most organised team in the tournament.
There's very little to say about this game that hasn't already been mentioned about many other first group games so far. Spain were turned over by an extremely scrappy Swiss goal having laid siege to the Swiss goal but found themselves repelled by Ottmar Hitzfeld's side each and every time.
The Swiss were an organised team as with many up against more illustrious opponents, and even survived the early loss through injury of Philippe Senderos who limped off after 35 minutes following lengthy treatment on the sidelines.
The 9th goal-less first half out of 16 games so far has been a poor summary of a generally unadventurous play but it seemed like a matter of time before Spain would make their superior possession count. Instead, they got a major shock.
Gelson Fernandes clambered over the Spanish defence and poked a shock opening goal after 52 minutes. A long ball down the middle was chased by Derdiyok and bounced off Pique but fell nicely for Fernandes who was up with the attacking play and forced the ball into the back of the net with Pique sprawled inside the 6 yard box.
With Torres on shortly after this, Spain turned up the pressure and the attempts came raining in on the Swiss goal.
There were some superb long range efforts in this game, with Xabi Alonso rattling the bar, but when Andres Iniesta limped off close to the end the Spanish seemed to run out of ideas.
