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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-squad-latest-player-news-injury-information/

Switzerland World Cup 2018 squad: Latest player news and injury information

Switzerland's World Cup prospects are one of the hardest to predict, and also the most intriguing.

Currently ranked No 6, the Swiss have enough talented players in the peak years of their careers to go far in Russia.

Coach Vladimir Petkovic confidently suggested there was no limit to his team's potential minutes after qualifying in November.

Then came the World Cup draw, with games against Brazil and Serbia putting the Swiss at risk of two quick losses and elimination within days.

After that, 2014 quarter-finalist Costa Rica await to close out Group E. At least a 6-0 win over Panama in March suggested Petkovic's team can cope with a typically Central American style.

Brazil are favourites to advance as Group E winners, and the runners-up will head to St Petersburg to play the Group F winner - likely to be defending champions Germany.

Switzerland fans have waited a long time to see their expectations exceeded at a major tournament. The team appears good enough to do it this time, but it will be difficult.

Here's a closer look at the Switzerland team.

Coach
Among World Cup coaches, Vladimir Petkovic took a less traveled path to Russia. When Joachim Low took charge of Germany in 2006, Petkovic still had a day job in a charity store while coaching lower-ranked Swiss teams.

Petkovic took his big chance in 2012 to coach Lazio, and soon won the Italian Cup. He was hired for the Switzerland job only when then-Austria coach Marcel Koller could not be tempted home to succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld after the 2014 World Cup.

Seen as a second choice, Petkovic took time to grow into the role of following two-time Champions League winner Hitzfeld.

Now the Bosnian-born coach has asserted himself with a second straight tournament qualification, leading a team featuring several key players whose parents moved to Switzerland from the former Yugoslavia.

Goalkeepers
Yann Sommer has been Petkovic's consistent first-choice pick since taking over from Diego Benaglio, who retired from the national team after the last World Cup. Still, the Borussia Moenchengladbach goalkeeper is under pressure from Borussia Dortmund's Roman Buerki. Petkovic plans to use pre-World Cup friendlies against Spain and Japan to make the decision.

Defenders
Switzerland get their experienced full-backs from Italy: Stephan Lichtsteiner of Juventus, preparing for his third World Cup, on the right and AC Milan's Ricardo Rodriguez on the left.

Fast-improving Manuel Akanji staked his claim for a starting place with impressive displays in the play-offs against Northern Ireland in November. Akanji took his chance when Johan Djourou was injured, and was soon leaving Basel for Dortmund in January.

Fabian Schaer formed a solid central partnership with Djourou for most of the nine straight wins in qualifying until a final 2-0 loss to group winner Portugal.

Midfielders
A veteran midfield trio should be Valon Behrami, Granit Xhaka and Blerim Dzemaili - all with more than 60 appearances. Behrami is set for his fourth straight World Cup at the age of 33, one year younger than Lichtsteiner, as the calming statesman of the squad.

Dzemaili, now back in Serie A with Bologna after a loan spell at Montreal Impact, has the most attacking role of the three. His last World Cup contribution was an unlucky double close-range miss near the end of extra time in Switzerland's 1-0 loss to Argentina in the Round of 16.

Forwards
A central striker should be flanked by Xherdan Shaqiri to the right and Admir Mehmedi on the left.

At age 26 and 27 respectively, they should be peaking but neither has had ideal preparation. Shaqiri's club Stoke look doomed to relegation from the Premier League and Mehmedi, a January signing by Wolfsburg, had surgery on a foot injury in March.

The identity of the central striker is perhaps the biggest question for Petkovic.

Haris Seferovic, mostly out of favor at Benfica, is the latest Switzerland forward to be booed by fans. Borussia Moenchengladbach's Josip Drmic is returning from injury.

Breel Embolo, the 21 year-old with Champions League-bound Schalke, has not been prolific in two injury-hit Bundesliga seasons, though he looks the most talented option.

Group games
Switzerland open against the best team in qualifying, Brazil, on June 17 in Rostov-on-Don. Then there is a long trip west from their base in Tolyatti, Samara, to Kaliningrad to play Serbia on June 22. Group E is completed against Costa Rica in Nizhny Novgorod on June 27.

 

Korea Republic name provisional #WorldCup squadhttps://t.co/S4zPZWyHOZ pic.twitter.com/gew0RMY8E7

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) May 14, 2018

 

Our Korean group rivals, almost all of their players are domestic which makes them more of an unknown quantity.

Some German made the preliminary of other countries.
Ex German youth Ashkan Dejagah is in Iran's squad.
while Danish-German Jannik Vestergaard is in Denmark's squad

Here's the Danish squad
https://www.tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/landshold/35-spillere-udtaget-her-er-danmarks-vm-bruttotrup

 

Nigeria Squad which also includes German-Nigerian Balogun.

.@NGSuperEagles 30-Man Provisional World Cup list #SoarSuperEagles #SuperEagles pic.twitter.com/OcTuwtNGbR

— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) May 14, 2018

 

Brazil

Os 23 convocados do Brasil para a Copa do Mundo 2018 🇧🇷🏆

Alisson
Casemiro
Cassio
Coutinho
Danilo
Douglas Costa
Ederson
Fagner
Fernandinho
Filipe Luís
Firmino
Fred
Gabriel Jesus
Marcelo
Marquinhos
Miranda
Neymar
Paulinho
Pedro Geromel
Renato Augusto
Taison
Thiago Silva
Willian pic.twitter.com/EmXQxdcJa5

— Goleada Info (@goleada_info) May 14, 2018

Argentina

Argentina's provisional World Cup squad has been named 🇦🇷

Can they go all the way? pic.twitter.com/tYw4Iqepvg

— GOAL (@goal) May 14, 2018

Group Rivals Mexico

996069844574404610 is not a valid tweet id

who also have a Mexican-German in Jurgen Damm.

 

Couple of BL players on that Mexico list, Carlos Salcedo and Marco Fabian both from Eintracht Frankfurt. And as expected, the former Leverkusen Chicharito.

Speaking of past BL players, Peru captain Paolo Guerrero will miss the WC after his suspension for doping has been extended. Their top player still looks to be Jefferson Farfan who lead Lokomotiv Moscow to a Russian league title even at age 33. Wonder if they'll call up Claudio Pizarro to replace Guerrero.

 

is it because he's almost 40?

guy needs to retire.

 

I'm not a Werder Bremen fan at all, but Pizarro can go f uck himself for all I care. He ditched Bremen whenever it suited him and Bremen fans still welcomed him back with open arms, which would've been OK if it only happened once, but he did it again and again, which makes Bremen fans look like a woman with no sense of worth who keeps welcoming back her unfaithful husband knowing he'll continue to cheat on her.

 

Group Stage rivals, Sweden.

Här är hela den preliminära svenska VM-truppen: https://t.co/KchBMuroB4 #SWE #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/4dQ5GakVkx

— Alexandra Jonson, FIFA (@FIFAWWC_SWE) May 15, 2018

Uruguay's squad.

#Rusia2018 | Lista de 26 futbolistas convocados de @Uruguay para la preparación de la Copa del Mundo.#ElEquipoQueNosUne pic.twitter.com/No94HIgvGD

— Selección Uruguaya (@Uruguay) May 15, 2018

Our Italian Rivals finally have a new coach.

National Team to start again with Roberto #Mancini: "I'm proud to be the Head Coach, I want to bring #Italy 🇮🇹 back up high."

➡ https://t.co/XuCtC8wSLz#Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/6rAiEfutU7

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) May 15, 2018

let's see if they can finally be competitive again. Have had tons of issues in the last decade. Still feels weird not to have Italy in the WC. But at the same time had they beaten Sweden, we would have been in the same group.

 

England's final WC squad.
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jack Butland (Stoke), Nick Pope (Burnley)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose (all Tottenham), Harry Maguire (Leicester), Phil Jones (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Gary Cahill (Chelsea)

Midfielder: Jordan Henderson, (Liverpool), Eric Dier, Dele Alli (both Tottenham), Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young (both Man Utd), Fabian Delph (Man City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea),

Forwards: Raheem Sterling (Man City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

 

England’s forwards are quite the formidable bunch , but yes they can’t field 5 forwards can they now !

 

I think their midfield is weak and that could be their weakness.

 

looks like they will be working the ball out of the back to the wingers hitting teams that way

 

England will find a way to bottle it as they usually do.

 

I think England will be a lot more interesting once those U20 WC, U19 EC and U17 WC+U17 EC players get older and make the senior level, since none of them have been called up to this WC. We could start seeing them by the EC2020, though.

Let's see what's the end result of them winning all these youth tournaments.

Until then, this seems to be no different than the last few tournament England squads.

 

Yeah it's only Trent Alexander Arnold that has made the cut from those age group Squads and he actually didn't play in the U19's Finals either ( can't remember why ). After this World Cup I think we will definitely see more U20's making the step up.

One glaring problem with this squad is the midfield. There is very little creativity or even a playmaker there which is why many were quite surprised that Southgate didn't take Wilshere or Lallana even though they both have question marks about fitness. If he starts with Dier & Henderson as two holding midfielders then it's going to be painful to watch as an England fan.

 

I believe Liverpool requested Trent Alexander be rested for the upcoming season so he missed out on the youth success.

yeah the midfield looks terrible, not sure why Southgate didn't take a guy like Mount unless he didn't because of the lower league.

This really would have been a perfect time to start incorporating the younger guys. Should have went for that, now it feels like England won't be competitive until WC2022. As the EC 2020 is more likely to be the tournament where you really start the transition.

 

Notre équipe pour la Coupe du Monde 👊🇫🇷 #FiersdetreBleus #ListeDes23 pic.twitter.com/Wq2KGAYoQX

— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) May 17, 2018

 

Portugal


CONVOCATÓRIA FINAL:


Guarda-redes - Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Beto (Goztepe) e Rui Patrício (Sporting)

Defesas - Bruno Alves (Rangers), Cédric Soares (Southampton), José Fonte (Dalian Yifang), Mário Rui (Nápoles), Pepe (Besiktas), Raphael Guerreiro (Dortmund), Rolando (Marselha) e Rúben Dias (Benfica), Ricardo Pereira (FC Porto)

Médios - Adrien Silva (Leicester), Bruno Fernandes (Sporting), João Mário (West Ham), João Moutinho (Mónaco), Manuel Fernandes (Lokomotiv Moscovo) e William Carvalho (Sporting)

Avançados - André Silva (AC Milan), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Gelson Martins (Sporting), Gonçalo Guedes (Valência) e Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas)

 

Eight Bundesliga players are on Japan's preliminary squad:

https://www.ligainsider.de/mobile/japan/7017/japan-mit-acht-bundesligalegionaeren-246742/

Belgian FA: “Roberto has done an excellent job so far. The players are happy. His highly professional approach is well appreciated. He’s signed a new deal at the same terms as his previous contract (£875.000 a year). A sign that money isn’t his first priority.” pic.twitter.com/YWYbcrr2BA

— Kristof Terreur (@kristofterreur) May 18, 2018

 

South Korea's World Cup hopes suffered a major blow on Saturday as star midfielder Kwon Chang-hoon sustained an Achilles injury that is set to rule the 23 year-old out of the tournament.

With 14 minutes remaining in the final game of the French campaign, Kwon, Korea's most in-form player with 11 goals for Dijon FCO this season, limped off the pitch against Angers.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/south-ko...pes-dented-by-kwon-chang-hoon-achilles-injury

 

pointless game, too many clubs seem to have avoided resting their regulars in the last game of the season, even when there is no Europe or relegation worry.

sucks as I always prefer to see all countries have their best players available. And Korea are also a group rival.

 

Radja Nainggolan left off of Belgium's WC preliminary squad

🗒️Our #WorldCup squad list !
Final 23 ➡️ 04/06#REDTOGETHER 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/nxOLAv28MS

— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) May 21, 2018