Outlook after Belgium bankruptcy – Petkovic: “It may have changed too much”

The Swiss team did not start the last week of international matches of the year as requested. The “prelude” to the most important matches of the Nations League was lost against Belgium 1: 2, also due to individual errors.

The Belgian draw was preceded by a bad pass from Loris Benito. When Michy Batshuayi scored the second goal of the night, the Swiss only stayed in line. “Against an opponent of this caliber, you pay for your mistakes,” says coach Vladimir Petkovic.

Finding the phase after the break

But he also takes the defeat partly on his own head: “He may have changed too much during the break.” In fact, the 57-year-old replaced 4 players in one go at halftime. So he rightly adds that those games are meant for that too.

“After so many changes you have to find yourself first, of course,” said striker Admir Mehmedi. “Then we lost the game because of our own fault. We could certainly have made better use of one or another opportunity to move forward. “

Benito also sounded the same horn: “The team needed some time after the break to meet. It is not the first time that we are disappointed after a match like this, because we were actually able to build a good first half. “

Motivated for the final push

Now it is Saturday (against Spain in Basel) and Tuesday (against Ukraine in Lucerne) to stay at the top level of the Nations League. Nati’s players believe that the motivation is there, of course. Especially since, according to Mehmedi, “many positive aspects” can be removed from the Belgian game.