March 29, 2024 14:36 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
PM Modi has mastered art of manipulating democracy, hurting Constitution: Mallikarjun Kharge | Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest at 63 | NIA arrests key conspirator in Bengaluru cafe blast case | Actor Govinda returns to politics after 14 years of 'vanvas', joins Eknath Shinde camp | 'To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture': PM posts after 600 lawyers write to CJI
Shaqiri treble takes Swiss through

Shaqiri treble takes Swiss through

India Blooms News Service | | 26 Jun 2014, 10:22 am
Manaus, June 26 (FIFA.com/IBNS) Xherdan Shaqiri hit a hat-trick as Switzerland qualified for the Round of 16 with a comfortable 3-0 win over Honduras at the Arena Amazonia in Manaus.

The Bayern Munich midfielder's treble - the second seen at Brazil 2014, following that of his club colleague Thomas Muller - secured second spot in Group E and set up a knockout duel with Argentina in Sao Paulo.

Shaqiri had never scored at the FIFA World Cup before today, but he signalled his intent to change that as early as the third minute, when his close-range effort forced Noel Valladares into an excellent save.

There was nothing, however, the Honduras keeper could do three minutes later when Switzerland's No23 next took aim. On that occasion, Shaqiri scored a contender for goal of the tournament, cutting inside from the right, holding off two Honduran defenders and curling a superb left-foot shot in off the underside of the bar from 25 yards.

Honduras attempted to respond, but suffered throughout from a lack of quality and composure in the final third, and had no-one to match the class of Shaqiri. With 31 minutes played, the Bayern midfielder doubled his and his team's tally, racing through on to a pass from Josip Drmic, sizing up the angles and slotting calmly and firmly into the bottom-right corner.

The Hondurans did improve markedly after half-time and carved out several early chances in the second period that, had they been converted, might have sparked a comeback.

Jerry Bengston was the player to whom most of these opportunities fell, but first he failed to connect with an attempted diving header and then, after rounding goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, watched in agony as Ricardo Rodriguez made a dramatic goal-line clearance.

Those misses allowed Switzerland to put the outcome beyond doubt with 19 minutes remaining, and again it was Shaqiri who did the damage. Not for the first time, he was indebted to some excellent set-up play by Drmic on the left, leaving the Europeans' hat-trick hero to side-foot a casual left-foot shot low beyond the wrong-footed Valladares.


Report courtesy: FIFA.com

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.