COLOGNE, 15 Jun: Breel Embolo ran, arms spread wide in celebration, after his goal that meant a win for Switzerland and a triumphant personal comeback.
\nEmbolo had not played for Switzerland in 18 months as a succession of injuries \u2014 worst of all a cruciate ligament tear \u2014 left him an observer of his club Monaco and of his national team. They robbed the momentum of a player who scored two goals in four games at the last World Cup.
\nIt was all in the past as Embolo scored in added time to complete Switzerland\u2019s 3-1 win over Hungary in both teams\u2019 first game of the European Championship on Saturday.
\nThe chance came out of nowhere \u2014 a Hungary defender gave away the ball \u2014 but Embolo\u2019s lobbed finish over the goalkeeper made it seem like he hadn\u2019t missed a moment.
\n\u201cIt was a very uncertain situation after the very serious, long injury and another injury after that. We had hope,\u201d Swiss coach Murat Yakin said of Embolo.
\nEmbolo hadn\u2019t been able to train with the team for much of the pre-tournament camp and didn\u2019t play in two friendlies. But captain Granit Xhaka said Embolo was \u201ca very, very important player for our team, both on the field and off the field.\u201d
\nUntil Embolo scored, Hungary threatened a comeback. Switzerland led 2-0 but was in danger of letting it slip as Hungary burst into life midway through the second half.
\nA tactical surprise paid off as Switzerland coach Murat Yakin picked forward Kwadwo Duah and midfielder Michel Aebischer in his starting lineup and they both scored.
\nDuah opened the scoring in just his second game for Switzerland, shooting low past goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi off a pass from Aebischer. The offside flag went up but a long video review confirmed the goal and the delighted Duah was surrounded by the Swiss bench players.
\nAebischer made it 2-0 just before halftime, finding space on the edge of the box to hit a curling low shot past Gulacsi.
\nBarnabas Varga\u2019s diving header in the 66th off Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s cross brought celebrations for Hungary as some of its black T-shirt-wearing hardcore fans lit flares. Hungary kept up the pressure after that but couldn\u2019t score a second time before Embolo\u2019s goal decided the game.
\nHungary coach Marco Rossi said his team was \u201ctoo passive\u201d in the first half and a \u201ctactical misunderstanding\u201d allowed Aebischer too much time on the ball to shape Swiss attacks.
\nSwitzerland is second in Group A after host Germany beat Scotland 5-1 on Friday in the tournament opener. Hungary had its first loss in a competitive game since September 2022.
\nSwitzerland\u2019s next game is on Wednesday against Scotland. Hungary plays Germany the same day in a rematch from the last European Championship, when they drew 2-2. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLOGNE, 15 Jun: Breel Embolo ran, arms spread wide in celebration, after his goal that meant a win for Switzerland and a triumphant personal comeback. Embolo had not played for Switzerland in 18 months as a succession of injuries \u2014 worst of all a cruciate ligament tear \u2014 left him an observer of his club […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}