Kaliningrad: It was when Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri celebrated their goals with the Albanian eagle salute that you knew just how much beating Serbia meant to them.
Two players of Kosovan descent not only put Switzerland on the brink of the World Cup knockout stages but they struck a blow for the nation the country they were playing still refuses to recognise.
Whatever Arsenal fans think of Xhaka, surely not even they would begrudge him what must have been one of the most emotional goals of this World Cup, with his father having been imprisoned for campaigning for the independence of Kosovo.
That kept Switzerland’s Group F destiny in their own hands before Shaqiri put them firmly in control of it and left Serbia needing to beat Brazil to reach the last 16 for the first time since their country became independent itself.
The first meeting of these two countries since the collapse of Yugoslavia had long been billed as a grudge match, given two of Switzerland’s players were born in Kosovo — the former Serbian province its former overlords still refused to recognise as an independent state — and a third’s family was forced to flee there.
The most faithful of them to his heritage, Shaqiri, even speaks Albanian at home and has long worn boots bearing the flag of both his adopted country and birthplace, an online picture of which last month prompted a caustic response from Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
As well as earning their country a Fifa fine for a Second World War-era banner in their World Cup opener in Samara, Serbia fans could apparently be heard singing “Kosovo JE Srbija” (Kosovo is Serbia) in the city’s bars.
In Kaliningrad — a place with its own complex history of nationhood — they made their feelings clear by jeering Switzerland’s Balkan-blooded players from the moment their names were announced over the public address.
Xhaka, tried to silence the catcalls with the first shot in anger but Serbia’s fans were celebrating at the other end inside five minutes.
Switzerland failed to learn their lesson as, first, Mitrovic climbed highest to connect with a header Yann Sommer did well to repel, before the Newcastle United striker outmuscled Fabian Schar to power home Dusan Tadic’s cross moments later.
Switzerland’s defensive game plan, just days after they managed to keep Brazil at bay, was proving one of the great mysteries of the World Cup.
But they began soon began exposing holes of their own in their opponents’ backline and would have equalised after half an hour but for a superb reflex save from Vladimir Stojkovic. Needing a goal to avoid having to cheer on their opponents against Brazil on Wednesday, they threw on Mario Gavranovic at half-time for the ineffective frontman Haris Seferovic.
Given the politically-charged atmosphere, the clincher seemed destined to come from a Balkan and it was Shaqiri — of all of them — who provided it in injury time.
Serbia were on the attack when the play was played forward to the Stoke City winger, who stayed onside by remaining in his own half and out-sprinting his pursuer before slotting under Stojkovic.
— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2018
