An early goal by defender Fabian Schaer earned Switzerland a 1-0 win over 10-man Albania in the second Group A match of the European Championship on Saturday.
Despite dominating most of the game, Switzerland failed to increase its lead after Albania captain lorik Cana was sent off in the 37th minute following a second yellow card at Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
Goalkeeper Yann Sommer had to come to Switzerland’s rescue in the closing minutes, with his fine save preventing an equalizer from the unmarked Shkelzen Gashi his former teammate from Switzerland’s Under-21 team.
Schaer scored the only goal when he jumped to meet a corner by Xherdan Shaqiri and headed home in the fifth minute. Albania goalkeeper Etrit Berisha had left his goal to intercept the ball but was just too late.
He headed both goals in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Norway in September 2013 — but the 24-year-old Schaer isn’t used to being in the spotlight. He wasn’t part of the Swiss squad that won the Under-17 World Cup seven years ago, and even started studying for a career in banking. Switzerland had the best of Saturday’s early exchanges and regained the initiative after Albania lost Cana. The captain handled the ball to deny Switzerland striker Haris Seferovic a goalscoring opportunity, 14 minutes after being punished by referee Carlos Velasco Carballo for a late tackle on Blerim Dzemaili.
Switzerland made Albania pay for a shaky start in its first match at a major tournament.
Albania settled after 20 minutes but lost control again after the red card. Searching for the equalizer, Albania inevitably opened up its defensive line.
“The key moments of the game were the goal from Fabian Schaer, the dismissal of lorik Cana and our three misses from close range that could have changed the game,”Albania coach Giovanni De Biasi said. He added that the red card “really changed the balance of the game. We had to change our approach.”
Kanu’s strike sink Slovakia
Wales were playing in its first match at a major tournament since the 1958 WC. Slovakia had much of the early possession and almost took the lead in the third minute when Marek Hamsik's low effort was cleared off line by Ben Davies.
Following a foul on midfielder Jonathan Williams, Bale curled his shot past Slovakia goalkeeper Kozacik in the 10th minute. Ondrej Duda, who had only come off the Slovakia bench, scored from Robert Mak's low cross in the 61st minute to equalize.
In the dying minutes of the game, Aaron Ramsey stumbled as he raced toward the goal and the ball fell kindly to Robson-Kanu, who wrong-footed the goalkeeper and scored the winning goal for Wales.