Vargas and Switzerland knocked out by Spain
EURO journey also ends for Koubek – Gruezo returns
First Team
05.07.2021, 10:04
Ruben Vargas and Switzerland suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of Spain in the European Championship on Friday night. After a great fight and playing a significant portion of the game with a man disadvantage, the ‘Nati’ eventually suffered a 3-1 defeat on penalties. Tomáš Koubek and Czech Republic’s tournament has also come to an end.
The game started badly for Switzerland with an early own goal by Denis Zakaria (8'). However, the Swiss fought their way back into the match and equalised after the break through Xherdan Shaqiri (68'). After Remo Freuler was shown a red card shortly afterwards (77'), Switzerland were forced to see out the game with ten players, but managed to hold on through extra time and reach a penalty shootout. In addition to Switzerland's Fabian Schär and Manuel Akanji, FCA's Ruben Vargas, who was brought on as a substitute early on (23'), also missed from the spot. Despite Spain also missing two kicks, they were able to advance to the semi-finals with a 3-1 penalty win.
Also for Tomáš Koubek and the Czech Republic, the European Championship is over after a 2-1 defeat to Denmark. Thomas Delaney gave the Scandinavians an early lead (5'), before Kasper Dolberg doubled shortly before the break (42'). Patrik Schick pulled one back just after the change of ends (49'), but in the end, Czech Republic were unable to avoid a narrow defeat.
Gruezo returns as Ecuador lose to Argentina
Carlos Gruezo will also now begin his summer break. The midfielder, who returned and played 45 minutes for the first time since his being infected with coronavirus, lost 3-0 to Argentina in the Copa America quarter-finals with Ecuador. Rodrigo de Paul, Lautaro Martinez and Lionel Messi scored for the Albiceleste, with Ecuador's Piero Hincapié being shown a straight red card in injury time (90'+2).
