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The Swiss Tackle The Belgians

The international break doesn’t normally throw up so many consistently good games to watch, but that’s the beauty of the UEFA Nations League in a nutshell. Some of European football’s biggest and best will be competing for the right to not only win the competition, but also move on to UEFA Euro 2020. There are plenty of reasons to be confused about it and there are even more reasons to miss the domestic game, but if you give it a chance, you’ll soon see that following and supporting the Nations League isn’t exactly some kind of sin – and you could even argue that it’s actually pretty fun.

One encounter that we’re going to focus on today is Switzerland vs Belgium, as two of Europe’s finest lock horns for the right to take a huge step forward in the Nations League. We already saw this game play out just over a month ago so it’ll interesting to see whether or not either team has made significant changes, or if we’ll just end up seeing a repeat of the reverse fixture. Whatever the case may be it’s certainly not the worst substitute in the world for Premier League action, especially given the quality of Super Sunday so far this season.

Switzerland come into this game knowing that they’ve got a point to prove, after their World Cup adventure ended in an anti-climax of sorts this past summer. They’ve long since been viewed as a country capable of going to the latter stages of any given tournament they’re in, but they definitely appear to be running out of ideas when it comes to getting over that knockout game hump. Sure, they’ve got quality individuals who can make big plays, but we all know that it isn’t enough to just possess individual star power anymore. You need more than that.

By more than that, of course, we mean a team like Belgium. While they fell short of their goal to win the World Cup they certainly did themselves proud, finishing in 3rd place to ensure they brought home a bronze medal to their homeland. Now it’s time for them to try and build on that in the best manner possible, and step one will be trying to beat France to the punch in winning the Nations League. It’ll be tricky but doubting them would be a big mistake, especially after seeing what they’ve done ever since getting back from Russia.

To say that this last six game stretch has been a big test for Switzerland would be something of an understatement, especially given that the stretch started with their final game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. They were knocked out of the tournament at the Round of 16 phase by Sweden, and bizarrely enough, that wound up spurring them on towards a mammoth 6-0 Nations League triumph over Iceland just two months later. Back to back defeats against England and Belgium (1-0 and 2-1) brought them back down to Earth which was followed by another win over Iceland, although all eyes will be on them to see how they recover after a shocking 1-0 loss to 2022 WC hosts Qatar earlier in the week.

Belgium, on the other hand, just can’t seem to avoid success right now – kicking off their six game run with a 2-0 win over England in the 3rd place play-off in Russia. They then demolished Scotland and Iceland (4-0 and 3-0) before gaining the edge over Switzerland with a 2-1 win in their first Nations League game. A 1-1 draw with the Netherlands reminded them that they aren’t invincible, although they did look impressive earlier this week after cruising to a 2-0 win over the always plucky Iceland.

As we all know these sides are no strangers to one another with their first meeting taking place way back in 1912, and as it stands, Belgium lead the overall head to head standings 14-8 with six draws to speak of. In addition to their recent 2-1 game back in October the Belgians have also had the edge over them pretty consistently as of late, with the Swiss only winning once in their last eight meetings – which took place back in November 1983. Perhaps they’ll be able to make the necessary adjustments, but psychologically, Switzerland know they’re an inferior side to their counterparts right now.

Switzerland have a series of great individual talents and we’re all well aware of that, but the big question remains as to how and when they’re going to gel as a unit on a consistent basis. The biggest injury worry for them is going to be Stephan Lichtsteiner who pulled out of the squad through injury, although apart from that, they should have all – if not most – of their biggest weapons available to them. So then, in truth, one of the major queries remaining is whether or not they’ll change their setup.

Perhaps the biggest advantage for the Swiss is going to be something that has nothing to do with them: and that’s the injury worries that Belgium find themselves with. Despite having great security at the back they’re going to have to deal with both Thomas Vermaelen and Jan Vertonghen missing out through injury, and things only get worse as you make your way through the squad. Kevin De Bruyne and Mousa Dembele will both be big misses through the middle, and it still seems unlikely that Romelu Lukaku will be able to make his return in time for this one. They’ve got strength in depth, but will it be enough?

Switzerland vs Belgium Betting Prediction

It’s always interesting to see how teams fare against one another when they’ve played so close to the reverse fixture, and this’ll be no different. As we’ve stated before international football is dramatically underrated and we think that it’s going to be on full display in this one, with the Swiss coming out like a house on fire. They know that they’ve got goalscoring talent within their ranks and they’ll try and utilise that, pushing Belgium back bit by bit – until eventually, they’ll get caught with a traditional Belgian counter.

That’ll give them the lead and Switzerland will struggle to recover, with Belgium eventually adding a second midway through the second half. Then, a fortunate penalty decision will give the hosts a route back into the game, only for Belgium to finish the job with yet another counter just minutes before the full time whistle blows. That sounds like a long winded way of predicting a game of this magnitude and we almost certainly won’t get it spot on, but we’re hopeful that we’re going to see something fairly entertaining this weekend. In terms of a final score, we’re going for 3-1 Belgium.