Salt Lake City (United States) (AFP) – World Cup co-hosts Mexico were beaten 4-2 by Switzerland in a friendly at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, leaving coach Javier Aguirre far from happy. El Tri were facing the Swiss as part of their warm-up for this month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup but their frailties were exposed by Murat Yakin’s team.
“When you concede four goals, you have to hang your head and go home to train,” said Aguirre. “We made a lot of mistakes, both collectively and individually, and when you do that against teams of this caliber, you get punished,” he added.
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Switzerland took the lead in the 20th minute when Ricardo Rodriguez sent a deep pass to Breel Embolo, who fired past goalkeeper Raul Rangel. Swiss keeper Gregor Kobel denied Mexico in the 29th minute when he blocked a point-blank shot from Santiago Gimenez with his chest. Vincent Sierro hit the bar for Mexico in the 34th minute while at the other end Rangel did well to keep out a dangerous shot from Silvan Widmer.
Gimenez brought Mexico level with a 51st-minute header, but the Swiss restored their advantage 13 minutes later with Zeki Amdouni side-footing home from close range. Dan Ndoye made it 3-1, firing home from a tight angle after being well set up by Fabian Rieder, but Mexico gave themselves some hope when Angel Sepulveda was found by Alexis Vega and beat Kobel with a superb, first-time shot.
But as Mexico pushed forward in search of an equalizer, the Swiss hit them on the break with Rieder providing the finish with a deft chip from the edge of the box. Mexico will face Turkey on Tuesday in North Carolina while Switzerland faces the USA in Nashville.
© 2024 AFP
