Half of the Swiss players play in Germany

Of the 22 players that coach Vladimir Petkovic has called up to face Spain, half, eleven, play for teams in the German Bundesliga.

Petkovic, born in Bosni-Herzegovina and of Croatian origin, knows that the German league is the best fishing ground to recruit footballers for his national team, since the Bundesliga is much more competitive than the Swiss Super League and that experience is vital to compete in international level.

Borussia Mönchengladbach is the club that contributes the most players to the Swiss national team, three. The list of Swiss footballers who play in Germany is as follows: Sommer, Elvedi and Embolo (Borusia Mönchengladbach), Edmilson Fernandez and Sow (Mainz), Mehmedi and Renato Stefen (Wolfsburg), Kobel (Sttutgart), Akanji (Borussia Dortmund), Zuber (Eintracht) and Rubén Vargas (Augsburg).

Only three players from the Swiss national team play for Super League clubs: Widmer and Loris Benito (Basel) and Omeragic (Zurich).

The other eight remaining are divided into clubs in Italy, England, France, the Netherlands and Croatia: Shaqiri (Liverpool), Xhaka (Arsenal), Seferovic (Lisbon), Mogo (PSV), Lotomba (Nice), Ricardo Rodríguez (Torino) , Schär (Newcastle) and Gavranovic (Dinamo Zagreb).

Switzerland, fourth in the classification of Group A of the Nations League, faces a key match against Spain to try to leave that last place in the group and avoid a possible demotion.

Switzerland have had two impressive draws against Germany, but have lost the remaining matches. A defeat against Spain would mean their relegation to League B, but they are undefeated at home in their last 17 official matches (14 wins and three draws).

The Swiss need a victory that brings them closer to Ukraine, their closest rival in the table with six points. Petkovic, the coach, knows that the challenge is not easy: “Our goal is not to be relegated and, for that, we have to beat Spain and Ukraine. We know it is difficult.”