The Swiss team has established themselves as not only one of the world’s best but one of the youngest. Following on from their glory of the Under 17 World Cup, players at that time are now in their prime and hitting peak form, adding to this a manage which guided Lazio to a league cup in his first season Petkovic and his stars are looking to cut a few of the bigger nations down to size.
With their FIFA ranking of an astonishing 8th, the bookies don’t hold out too much hope. Betting sites have the Switzerland team at an average odd of 66/1 meaning that teams which rank below them have better chances of winning the World Cup, Like England, France, Uruguay and Croatia. All who have better odds yet fall lower on the form table. So if form dictates, investing on the 8th best team in the world may actually be a very smart move at 66/1. The plot thickens because we have a team which has played 33 matches, scored a total of 45 goals thus far making it an average of 1.4 goals a game.
Now if Xherdan Shaqiri makes it into the final squad, you’re already looking at a potential 100/1 for him to make the most assists in the tournament, which are great odds for a midfield winger, that knows how to score, already having 6 major goals to his tally.
Least we not forget what happened in 2004
Pele was adamant that an African team would win the world cup by 2000, he’s then said 2010, still failed. We feel that it’s more likely to be an underdog than a team from the African Nations. When Greece won the Euros in 2004 they were ranked in the 18th world and there are signs the tide of football power is slowly moving. In 2004 Switzerland was joint 51st. Now the question would be asked, is this a national league influence? Perhaps, the rise from the depths of 2004 FIFA rankings does coincide with the bloom of the Swiss Super League’s no most popular team FC Basel and with league success comes Champions League Football and with playing with the world’s best, it surely has to account for something because to climb 43 places and surpass the likes Poland, Russia, Colombia, Cameroon, Germany and Italy during this period of 13 years is an achievement which has gone unnoticed and why we expect a true underdog to win the World Cup within the next four tournaments up to and including 2034.
The Swiss finished the group stages in 2nd place with Portugal tipping them by goal difference despite this the record matched 9 wins and 1 loss. The team with Shaqiri, Xhaka, Lichtsteiner and Seferovic have a great chance and its well within their capabilities to cause a major upset to any of the 7 better teams above them and the many which reside below them in the rankings.