Xherdan Shaqiri expressed regret for Switzerland’s performance in their 6-1 defeat to Portugal, giving credit to their opponents while emphasizing that his team needed to improve.
Switzerland was humiliated by a Portugal team that excluded Cristiano Ronaldo from the starting line up and was eliminated from the World Cup in the last-16. Ronaldo was replaced by Goncalo Ramos, who scored one of the game’s two goals in the first half before completing a hat trick in a raging second half.
The only time Murat Yakin’s team managed to get back into the game was when Manuel Akanji bundled in from a corner to make it 4-1.
“We are all disappointed, the whole team,” Xherdan Shaqiri said afterwards. “I just want to apologise to all the people in Switzerland, because we were not at our best today.
“We lost the game already in the first half against Portugal, who are a very good team. You saw the kind of goal they can score. With all respect, we have to do better.
“We have to learn from our mistakes, and if we are behind 2-0 against Portugal, it’s always very, very difficult to come back. We just were not at our best today, from everybody.”
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Shaqiri showed the breadth of talent Portugal has available by not dwelling on Ronaldo’s exclusion.
“It’s the whole team,” he said. “You saw today: he was on the bench, and they scored a lot of goals, too. The quality is there from the whole team, and we saw this today.”
The winger added: “Portugal is for me a favourite and also was before the tournament. They have a good team, a quality team, and we will see in the end how far they’re going to go.
“You saw today, in the offensive, they are very good. They can go very far.”
