Petkovic confident that Switzerland can get something from England

Switzerland national team manager Vladimir Petkovic says that he is confident that his team will be able to get something from the match against England in the first Euro 2016 qualifying match. This is the first competitive match for the new manager and he will be having a tough job on his hands following Switzerland’s excellent World Cup 2014. The Europeans came close to beating an Argentina team in the last 16 of the tournament only to be beaten by a late goal. Since then, expectations of Switzerland have risen immensely and Petkovic is hoping to meet those expectations.

While Switzerland have been on the way the world rankings published by FIFA, England have been on the way down in the last few years. A disastrous World Cup 2014 in which they failed even get past the group stages have seen England slip to their lowest ranking. This poor form coupled with several key players like Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard retiring in the last few months places a lot of stress upon England manager Roy Hodgson. Petkovic says that he is hoping to take advantage of this uncertainty surrounding England and proving that Switzerland’s World Cup campaign was no fluke.

Compared to England, Petkovic is expected to field a young team with 11 players under 23. “I like to be the favourite in a game, but confirmation always comes on the pitch. There’s still a lot of respect for England — no fear, but lots of respect. The Swiss FA during the past 10 years have been doing very well and improved on all levels. It’s been a good quality improvement. Now we can say we’re level with the English team. England is still England — a big name in football. We will play them with all the respect we have tomorrow (Monday),” said Petkovic.