World Cup: Blissful Swiss roll into coveted second Group G spot

The game was end to end to begin with, hinting that there could be goals in the offing as Serbia and Switzerland crossed paths to see who would go through from Group G along with already promoted Brazil.

Of course, third placed Cameroon were also still in the mix but they had the unenviable task of having to beat the mighty Brazilians and hope for the other result to go their way.

Ultimately, they did manage an unlikely win over the Brazilians, but Switzerland would go on to defeat Serbia 3-2 to ensure their own progress to the knockout stage.

There were no fewer than four goals in an absorbing first half, and brilliant ones they were.

The first came for the Swiss on 20 minutes as the diminutive Xherdan Shaqiri drilled an unstoppable left-footed shot low into the near corner (1-0).

Well deserved it was at this stage as the men from the mountains took charge.

But Serbia have an ace in the pack in the form of Aleksandar Mitrovic and when he is used as the focal point of their attack, things start to happen.

And it did just five minutes later when his clever run and change of direction saw him rise spectacularly to a cross and place it in the back of the net.

One-one and it was game on!

Serbia had a two-goal nett deficit should they end equal on points, so they needed to score again.

This time Shaqiri turned from hero to villain when he gave the ball away and the Swiss paid the price as Dusan Vlahovic pounced to make it 2-1 to Serbia.

But sloppy defending saw them lose that advantage just before the break as Breel Embolo had the easiest of tap-ins (2-2).

That goal elevated the Swiss to second in the group and relegated the Serbs to last place.

It still wasn’t over as Switzerland would score another in the second stanza, this time a superb inter-passing movement that was clinically finished by Remo Freuler for 3-2.

And so as Brazil and Switzerland live to fight at least another day at Qatar.