Behrami sees red for Switzerland (UK web users only)

Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld slammed the decision of referee Khalil Al Ghamdi to send off midfielder Valon Behrami in their 1-0 loss to Chile.

Behrami was shown a straight red card for raising an arm to Arturo Vidal in the first half in Port Elizabeth.

"The red card was not even a yellow. Of course I was angry," said Hitzfeld, who also accused the Chile players of putting on "quite a performance".

"The red card made it hard to defend our goal for 60 minutes," he added.

The result leaves the South Americans on six points and Switzerland on three ahead of the final round of Group H games on Friday, in which the Swiss face Honduras.

With Spain due to meet Honduras in their second game later on Monday it could set up an interesting final round of Group H fixtures, with qualification potentially decided by goal difference.

Gonzalez breaks Swiss resistance (UK web users only)

"I'm sure that if we win against Honduras, we will qualify for the round of 16," said Hitzfeld of Friday's match in Bloemfontein.

Chile's victory came courtesy of a headed goal from Mark Gonzalez in the 75th minute, ending the stubborn Swiss resistance that had earlier helped them surpass Italy's 20-year record of 550 minutes for the longest time without conceding a goal at the World Cup finals.

"It was a very intense match and we were very much under pressure," admitted Hitzfeld. "We knew the Chileans are fast, strong and on the attack and we had to use a lot of energy to fight back.

"My team did fight very hard, every single player went out of his mind to fight."

Despite being largely under the cosh for the majority of the game, Switzerland had a golden opportunity to snatch a point at the death, but substitute Eren Derdiyok shot wide from 12 yards.

"We had a 100% goal chance in the 90th minute and 1-1 would have been a just result," added Hitzfeld.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version