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Breel Embolo and Dan Ndoye both scored and Switzerland advanced to the round of 16 at the World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Algeria on Thursday night.
Switzerland will play the winner of Friday’s match between Colombia and Ghana in Kansas City, Missouri. The round-of-16 game is set for next Tuesday in Vancouver.
Switzerland has not won a knockout-round match since 1938 in France, but in 1954 the team won a playoff game to reach the quarterfinals.
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Although the Swiss reached the round of 16 at the past three World Cups, there was a smaller field of 32 teams in each of those tournaments, and they could get no further. Algeria was eliminated after returning to the World Cup for the first time since 2014, when it advanced to the knockout round but fell to eventual champion Germany.
Algeria dominated the first 10 minutes before Johan Manzambi raced down the right side and crossed to Embolo for the tap-in. Embolo celebrated his 26th international goal with a knee slide.
Less than a minute into the second half, Ndoye scored with a blast from the top of the box that diving Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane couldn’t stop.
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Fabian Rieder nearly got a third goal for Switzerland in the 81st minute but missed on the tap-in as the ball skirted across the face of Algeria’s goal.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino was at the game, his second of the day. Earlier his attended the match between Spain and Austria in Inglewood, California.
Algeria advanced as a third-place finisher after a 3-3 draw against Austria last Saturday in Kansas City. The result sent both teams through to the knockout round but eliminated Iran. Algeria captain Riyad Mahrez, 35, scored a pair of goals.
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The Swiss got goals from Rubén Vargas and Manzambi to beat Canada 2-1 on Wednesday – spoiling Canada’s hopes of playing their first-ever knockout-round game on home soil. Instead, Switzerland got the return trip to Vancouver.
The Swiss also got a week off, during which time they returned to their training base in San Diego. Manzambi, 20, has become the breakout star for Switzerland in the tournament, with a pair of goals and two assists. He played off the bench to start the World Cup, but earned a starting role in the team’s last two games.
Algeria head coach Vladimir Petkovic coached Switzerland from 2014-21 and led the team to the out of the group stage in the 2018 World Cup. He also was at the helm when the Swiss went to the quarterfinals of the European Championships in 2020.
