Switzerland national football team

20th century

Switzerland earned the silver medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. It was beaten 3–0 by Uruguay in the final.

The team participated in its first FIFA World Cup in 1934, where it reached the quarter-final before losing to Czechoslovakia. Switzerland again reached the quarter-final stage in 1938, losing to Hungary. Switzerland hosted the tournament in 1954 and reached the quarter-final for a third time, where the team was beaten 7–5 by neighbouring Austria. The Swiss also qualified for the World Cup in 1950, 1962 and 1966, losing in the first round on each occasion.

After the appointment of English manager Roy Hodgson in 1992, Switzerland rose to its highest ever position in the FIFA World Rankings and qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years. At the tournament finals, the team qualified for the second round by beating Romania and drawing with host nation the United States. Switzerland lost 3–0 to Spain in the second round.

The team then qualified for its first ever UEFA European Championship. For the finals of UEFA Euro 1996, Hodgson was replaced by the Portuguese Artur Jorge. The team finished bottom of Group A after a draw with England and defeats to the Netherlands and Scotland.

Euro 2004

Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in Group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia and the Republic of Ireland. After a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France to finish last in Group B.

Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, beating the record (set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney) by three months.

World Cup 2006

The 2006 World Cup in Germany was the first World Cup for Switzerland since 1994. After finishing second behind France in qualifying Group 4, they defeated Turkey on the away goals rule in the play-off round 2–0 and 2–4 (4–4 aggregate) to qualify for the main tournament.

In the group stage, they played again against France in Stuttgart, a 0–0 draw. After defeating Togo 2–0 in Dortmund and South Korea also 2–0 in Hannover, they finished first in Group G to qualify for the knockout stage. There, they faced Ukraine in Cologne, with the match having to be decided via a penalty shootout after 120 scoreless minutes were played; Ukraine won 3–0. Switzerland was the only team in tournament not to have conceded a goal during regulation time in their matches. Switzerland's top scorer at the tournament was Alexander Frei with two goals. When Switzerland lost 3–0 on penalties, that was the first time in history that a team lost on penalties without scoring a single goal in the penalties, and also the first time in World Cup history that a team left the tournament without conceding a goal.

Euro 2008

Switzerland co-hosted the Euro 2008 with Austria and was therefore automatically qualified. Switzerland played all matches of Group A in Basel. After losing the opening game 0–1 to the Czech Republic and the second game 1–2 against Turkey, they were already eliminated from their home tournament after only two games. Consolation came from the 2–0 victory over Portugal in the final group stage game. All three Switzerland goals in the tournament were scored by Hakan Yakin.

World Cup 2010

Qualification: Switzerland played in group 2 of the UEFA qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Despite an embarrassing home loss against Luxembourg (1–2), they finished first in their group, ahead of Greece, Latvia and Israel.

Group stage: In their first game in Group H, the team achieved a 1–0 win thanks to a goal from midfielder Gélson Fernandes against Spain, who were the eventual competition winners. Switzerland then lost their second game to Chile and thus needed a win by two goals in the last match against Honduras to advance to the next round. However, they managed only a scoreless draw and eventually placed third in their group.

Trivia: The goal by Mark González in the 75th minute of the game against Chile ended a 559-minute streak without conceding a goal in World Cup matches, beating the record previously held by Italy by nine minutes.

Euro 2012

Qualification: Switzerland ended qualification for Group G in third place, behind England and Montenegro. This meant that for the first time since the 2002 World Cup, Switzerland did not qualify for a major international tournament.

World Cup 2014

Switzerland qualified for the 2014 World Cup by winning UEFA qualification Group E.

At the tournament, the Schweizer Nati opened their campaign in the Brazilian capital of Brasília on 15th June against Ecuador, in the team's first ever meeting. At a goal apiece after an evenly fought game, the Swiss hit their opponents with a swift counter attack, with full back Ricardo Rodríguez capping off an incredible performance with a low cross across the box to striker Haris Seferović who fired the ball into the top corner, earning a valuable 3 points for the team in the dying minutes.

They then moved on to the toughest game of their group, against France in Salvador. Unfortunately, it was a painful game, going 5-0 down. Although Blerim Džemaili and Granit Xhaka pulled 2 goals back, it would end 5-2 to the French, meaning that the final game would decide their fate in the World Cup.

Going to Manaus knowing that only a win would secure their place in the last 16, they faced Honduras. They eventually qualified curteosy of a beautiful hat-trick from Xherdan Shaqiri, which was the WC's 50th hat-trick and only the second one from a Swiss at the finals, following legend Josef Hügi from the 1954 edition of the tournament.

Finishing second in the group behind the French, they earned a game against the South American powerhouse of Argentina. The Nati managed to keep them out for almost 2 hours of football, a goal from Ángel Di María just two minutes from penalties sealed the fate of the Swiss. A heartbraking end to their tournament, which was to be head coach Ottmar Hitzfeld's last ever game in charge, as he retired after the tournament.

Euro 2016

Switzerland was drawn in qualifying Group G and booked its berth at Euro 2016 with a 7–0 win over San Marino on 9 October 2015. They started Group A with a 1–0 win over European Championship debutants Albania at Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens. There was also much pre-match hype for this game, as brothers Granit Xhaka of Switzerland and Taulant Xhaka of Albania faced off, making it the first time in the history of the European Championships that two brothers representing two different teams had played each other. Defender Fabian Schär scored the winner early on with a glancing header, with Granit Xhaka being named man of the match.Goalkeeper Yann Sommer also received a lot of praise from the Swiss fans, after an incredible save from a one-one-one with Albanian midfielder Shkelzen Gashi in the game's late stages, pushing the ball to saftey over the bar.

Switzerland then drew 1–1 with Romania at Parc de Princes, Paris, with yet another man of the match performance from Xhaka. In the match, Romanian forward Bogdan Stancu scored the first goal from a penalty given from shirt-tugging by Stephan Lichtsteiner, before Admir Mehmedi equalized soon after the second half began.

Switzerland secured qualification to the knockout stages after earning a 0–0 draw with hosts France in Lille, where goalkeeper Yann Sommer was named man of the match for a solid performance. This game received quite a bit of post-match attention, as the Puma-made shirts of Breel Embolo, Admir Mehmedi and Granit Xhaka (twice for the latter) all ripped, with Valon Behrami also bursting the match ball when he went in to tackle Antoine Griezmann. After the match, Xherdan Shaqiri went on to jokingly say, "I hope Puma does not produce condoms."

In the knockout stages, the Swiss played Group B runners-up Poland in Saint-Étienne. Jakub Błaszczykowski opened the scoring before, in the dying moments of the game, Shaqiri scored arguably the best goal of the tournament with a bicycle kick to take the match to extra time. It eventually went to a penalty shoot-out after a goalless extra time period, with nine out of ten penalties being converted, the exception being Granit Xhaka, who blazed Switzerland's second penalty wide. Switzerland eventually lost 5–4 on penalties in what was a memorable yet heartbraking tournament for La Nati.

Competitive record

Switzerland is yet to earn a major trophy; the closest they have come was the quarter-finals of the World Cup on three occasions (1934, 1938 and 1954) and they won a silver medal in the 1924 Olympic games in Paris. The youth teams have been more successful, as the U-17-squad became European champions in 2002 and World champions in 2009 and the U-21 squad qualified for the semi-finals of the U-21-Euro 2002.

Match kits

The Switzerland home kit is red shirts, white shorts, and red socks and the away is the reversed of the kits is white shirts, red shorts, and white socks, although the shorts and socks of each kit are interchangeable if there is a minor clash. Ever since the team was established in 1895, they have always had the same colour code for both Home and Away kits, keeping it as tradition and homage to the national colours derived from the flag. The uniform is manufactured by Puma until the end of 2017–18 season.

Current squad

The following players have been called up for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification game against Latvia on 25 March 2017.
Caps and goals updated on 25 March 2017 after the match against Latvia.

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the team in the last 12 months and are still available for a call up.

^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.
^RET Retired from international football.
^PRE Preliminary squad.

Most appearances and goals

Most number of appearances and goals for the Swiss national team. Players in bold are still playing for the national team. Last updated after the match against Latvia, 25 March 2017.

National team results

Recent results and future matches. Blue background colour indicates competitive matches.

Swiss youth teams