World Cup Class of 2018: Switzerland

Population: 8.4 million

Capital: Bern

Team Colors: Red and White

How Qualified: Won Playoff vs. Northern Ireland

Nickname: The Nati

10th World Cup

Head Coach: Vladimir Petkovic (BIH)

Key Players: Xherdan Shaqiri (Stoke City), Stephan Licthsteinger (Juventus), Granit Xhaka (Arsenal)

Best Performance: Quarterfinals (1934, 1938, 1954)

Can they make it to the second round in this group? The group is a tough one with Brazil, Serbia, and Costa Rica. It might require a lot of goals and that’s the Swiss’s biggest question as well. A more important question is whether Switzerland can provide any attacking depth besides Xherdan Shaqiri?

This will be Switzerland’s 10th World Cup. They had a 100% record in qualifying until their final match in Portugal. The Swiss lost and had to go through a playoff against Northern Ireland which they won 1-0 on aggregate.

They made it to the Round of 16 the last time at the World Cup in 2014 and made the Round of 16 for the first time at the Euros in 2016. There is depth at the back with the flanks who can join in attack led by captain Stephan Lichtsteiner. Of course, there is Shaqiri in the center and will look to put an abysmal year at Stoke behind him.

However, center forward has been lacking for sometime for Switzerland. Goal difference became the deciding factor against Portugal for automatic qualification and a controversial penalty was the lone goal against Northern Ireland.

Against offensive teams like Brazil, Serbia, and Costa Rica; they will need to show that they can score goals and enough of them to advance to the next stage. Otherwise, it will be an uphill struggle where the Swiss could wind up downhill.

Schedule:

June 17: vs. Brazil in Rostov-on-Don (1pm CT on FS1/Telemundo)

June 22: vs. Serbia in Kaliningrad (1pm CT on FOX/Telemundo)

June 27: vs. Costa Rica in Nizhy Novgorod (1pm CT on FS1/NBC Universo)