Match date: 20 June 2014

Switzerland won their first group match, against Ecuador, despite conceding first. They’ve had an up and down time during their time under Ottmar Hitzfeld. They conceded just one goal in their 2010 World Cup campaign, which ended in the group stages, but included a 1-0 win over Spain in the opening match. They failed to qualifying for Euro 2012, however, qualified for this World Cup, which will be Hitzfeld’s last.

France put on what has been called the most dominate performance of the tournament thus far against Honduras. They’ve come into the tournament with cautious expectations than other big nations, but also came in with players in good form. Deschamps made two changes to the side that beat Honduras, bringing in Sissoko for Pogba and Giroud for Griezmann.

Swiss Attack Through Full Backs

Most of the chances that Switzerland were able to muster in the first half were the result of the advanced positioning of Ricardo Rodriguez and Stephan Lichtsteiner, Switzerland’s two full backs. Rodriguez is the more adept of the two at playing full-back, as he does at Wolfsburg, and his overlapping runs in the Switzerland’s first match were able to open up Ecuador and keep Antonio Valencia out of the game a bit.

Lichtsteiner, however, plays in a wing back role at Juventus, rather than as a full back, and you could tell in this match (as well as against Ecuador), as his positioning was more adventurous than it should have been at times with Switzerland playing a back four, rather than three centre backs as he is used to Juventus. His positioning allowed Shaqiri to drift around, as Lichtsteiner provided all the width that Switzerland needed on the right side of their attack. Shaqiri involved himself well in the Switzerland’s build up play and play around the French penalty area, while having four shots throughout.

France Counter Wide

The problem with Rodriguez and Lichtsteiner’s, in particular, advanced positioning was that it left the two Swiss centre backs exposed on France’s counter attacks. Lichtsteiner’s positioning was arguably the cause of France’s second and third goals.

The second goal saw Lichtsteiner almost too high up the field for the position of the ball. Behrami, who had a poor game overall, attempt to pass the ball back only for it to be intercepted, but Matuidi was able to run into a huge gap to the right of Djourou, who committed to Benzema, left by the advanced positioning of Lichsteiner.

To make up for Lichtsteiner’s forward runs, Behrami was often covering in the right back position, which caused Switzerland to lose another man in midfield, but also meant that a midfielder, who has a more natural inclination to go forward, was meant to cover a lot of ground. For France’s third goal, again Lichtsteiner is very high up the pitch, caught on a counter by France from a corner kick and neither Lichsteiner nor Behrami are tracking back.

Perhaps most interesting, however, is that France were able to expose Switzerland where France were tactically at their weakness. France’s two wide players, Benzema and Valbuena are far from players that provide natural width. Benzema certainly expected to stay in the starting XI after his performance against Honduras, but would have also expected to retain his central striking role, only for Deschamps to put Giroud there, and Benzema on the left. Thus Benzema was going to cut in. The same goes for Valbuena, who has always been given a free role under Deschamps both in country and club, when Deschamps managed Valbuena at Marseille.

Midfielders’ Forward Runs

France’s second and fifth goal were the result of midfielders running beyond Switzerland’s back four. The first of those two was the result of counter-pressing, which allowed Matuidi to already be in an advanced position and exploit the space that was left by the positioning of Lichtsteiner, as discussed above. The fifth goal from France, from Sissoko, saw him run into space left open because of Paul Pogba also making a forward run from midfield into the centre forward position, which drew Rodriguez over to cover.

Conclusion

France put in another impressive performance and with eight goals in their opening two matches, have added to their expectations going forward in the competition. Deschamps received criticism after not picking Nasri, but with the form of Valbuena and Benzema’s ability to exploit the space left by Lichtsteiner on the day, the French supporters are rarely going to question the decision again.

Switzerland are usually at their strongest when they attack through Lichtsteiner and Rodriguez, but were caught out far too often and by large margins on the day.