Doha’s 974 Stadium will be the rendezvous with a fierce battle between defense and attack, which has a political flavour, on Friday when Switzerland face Serbia in the third and final round of Group G competitions for the Qatar World Cup .
And between a defensively consistent Swiss squad that shut out world champions France from their final European Cup price tag last summer, then skipping Italy to the world finals for the second time in a row, and another Serbian that includes players like Dusan Tadic, Alexander Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic, Friday’s confrontation will be on fire in the truest sense of the word. .
This comparison will be a repetition of what happened in 2018, when Switzerland, Serbia and Brazil were also in the same group.
At the time, after a 1-1 draw with Brazil at the start, Switzerland took Serbia out of the group stage by beating them 2-1 in the second round with goals from Granit Xhaka and Gerdan Shaqiri, who provoked the Serbs after celebrated their approach to the fans, placing their hands on their chest in the opposite way, in a design of the “double eagle” crest Black is the symbol of Albania.
Shakiri was born in 1991 in Kosovo, the former Serbian province with an Albanian majority, and left with his family when he was one year old, while Chaka was born in Switzerland in 1992 to a family from Kosovo, the Muslim majority province north of Albania, which campaigned for secession from Serbia in 1998. .
The Belgrade regime violently cracked down on attempts at armed secession, prompting NATO to intervene in March 2018 and launch raids on the Serbian capital, forcing its forces to withdraw from Kosovo after 78 days.
Since 2008, the region has become independent after a conflict that has claimed 13,000 lives.
Although Kosovo has become an independent state recognized by more than one hundred countries (excluding Serbia and five European Union countries, Russia and China), it is still emotionally attached to the “Albanian nation”.
But coach Yakin stressed after the defeat against Brazil that “we will focus only on football, both teams. It will be an interesting match. That’s all I’m interested in.”
Shakiri sat out the loss to Brazil with a minor injury and Yakin reassured that the Chicago Fire’s American fullback would be back in time for the Serbia match.
further tension
And what increases the dimension of the “political” tension in Friday’s match is precisely this The Serbs raised a flag In the dressing room they incorporated a map of Kosovo, prompting FIFA to open disciplinary proceedings against the Serbian FA.
The photo, which was taken in the Serbian national team dressing room before facing Brazil, shows a map of Kosovo printed on a piece of white cloth hung from poles, and with the Serbian flag saying “There will be no surrender”.
The publication of the photo led to an official protest from Kosovo, with Sports Minister Hjrullah Çeku denouncing the “shameful photos” which convey “messages of hatred, xenophobia and genocide”.
“We expect concrete measures from FIFA, of which Kosovo is a full member,” added the sports minister.
The Football Federation of Kosovo announced that it had filed a complaint with FIFA against Serbia’s “aggressive action” at the start of its matches in the soccer world tournament, denouncing “such an act of hostility has no place in sporting events, not even at ‘inside the building where the biggest football event in the world is held’.
