Switzerland fight back to deny Belarus in six-goal Euro qualifying thriller

Amos Murphy

Zeki Amdouni scored a late leveller for SwitzerlandAFP

Carlos Alos’ Belarus side came within minutes of a first-ever victory over Switzerland, but the White Wings were forced to settle for a point after conceding twice within two minutes late on at the Kybunpark in St. Gallen.

Sitting pretty at the top of Group I, with sights set on qualification for next summer’s European Championships, Switzerland enjoyed a comfortable first half of action at home to strugglers Belarus.

After 28 minutes of play, talisman Xherdan Shaqiri opened the scoring with a trademark left-footed curler. Stepping inside onto his stronger foot, the former Liverpool star guided the ball home from 20 yards out, giving the hosts a deserved lead at the interval.

Having had everything go their own way in the first period, Swiss manager Murat Yakin would’ve instructed his side to go out in the second half and get the game swiftly wrapped up.

However, in a crazy 10-minute spell, Belarus, against all odds, tipped the game on its head.

The leveller came when Maks Ebong was allowed to drift into the penalty area unopposed, with the 24-year-old heading home Dmitri Antilevski’s pin-point cross.

It was a woeful goal to concede from a defensive point of view for Switzerland and the home side were left wanting once again just eight minutes later - this time Denis Polyakov got his name on the scoresheet with a bullet header from Kiryl Pyachenin’s corner kick.

Barely believing their luck, the Belarus celebrations may have been wild, but there were still 20 minutes for them to see out.

All those fears looked to have been quashed six minutes from time, with Antilevski capping off a stellar evening for Belarus by breaking in behind the Swiss defence and rifling a right-footed effort beyond goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Although it would prove too good to be true for the Eastern European nation, as Switzerland netted a quick-fire double of their own to steal an arguably undeserved point.

Manuel Akanji reduced the arrears with a centre-forward-like finish from Shaqiri’s clipped ball into the box, all before Zeki Amdouni was on hand to squeeze a bouncing ball inside the penalty area beyond Belarus goalkeeper Sergey Ignatovich.