Davinson Sánchez looked to the heavens. Cucho Hernández trudged back to his teammates. By the end, the pair’s penalty misses sent the Colombian team to the grass in anguish as Switzerland danced in front of their supporters, nearly alone in a sea of yellow. Switzerland had prevailed on penalties, 4-3, Ruben Vargas’s decider bringing an emotional end to more than two hours of tense, tentative, and ludicrously goal-free football at BC Place in Vancouver.
Switzerland advance to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1954, when that stage was the first in the knockout round of a home tournament featuring 16 teams. They will face a tall task to better that result, facing Lionel Messi and Argentina in Kansas City on Saturday (2am BST).
“Switzerland beat Colombia 4-3 on penalties to reach World Cup quarter-finals for first time since 1954.”
“I think I need another couple of hours or days to process what just happened,” the delighted Switzerland manager, Murat Yakin, said. “This is a dream.” Yakin repeatedly claimed the match had gone exactly to plan. If that is true, that plan must have consisted solely of finer points. This was more chess game than football match, with each team probing and prodding equally for more than 120 minutes, each sorely missing a finishing touch.
Possession remained even. Midfields took turns controlling proceedings, but only for minutes at a time. Sometimes those midfields were cut out entirely as long balls were traded to test capable backlines. The occasion lacked fireworks, but there was plenty of drama at the end.
“We were aware that this was going to be a tactical, tight match,” the Colombia manager, Néstor Lorenzo said. “Of course, we should have scored a goal.” Colombia had numerous chances and moments that brimmed with danger, but only rarely was that promise fulfilled. When the chances did come, Colombia’s strikers usually wasted them – none more important than Jaminton Campaz firing over the bar from 10 yards out in the 116th minute.
The game could surely have benefited from the presence of the Swiss midfielder Johan Manzambi, their leading scorer who sustained a knee injury in training the previous day. Yakin said the team had made all the tactical preparations with Manzambi in mind and his absence scuppered those plans.