Switzerland’s midfielder maestro and skipper Granit Xhaka and hardworking winger Xherdan Shaqiri were at their best in a five-goal thriller as they overpowered an over-aggressive Serbia 3-2 in their final Group G clash at Stadium 974 on Friday night.

Shaqiri brilliantly put his team in front in the 20th minute when he firmly placed one into the Serbian net off defender Strahinja Pavlovic and sprinted towards the vociferous Serbian supporters’ section with a finger on his lips. Serbia however, turned things around quickly, with a goal each from in-form forwards Aleksandar Mitrovic (26th minute) and Dusan Vlahovic (35th min).  Nerves could have easily taken over Switzerland at this time as their opponents were on a high and aggressively chasing and tackling every ball. However, here’s where skipper Xhaka stepped in. The central midfielder marshalled his troops to a tee. He first withdrew himself a bit to re-organise his suddenly shaken-up defence. And when things slowly settled at the back, he proceeded ahead to assist his forwardline. Remo Freuler’s second-half winner (48th min) for the Swiss side and their defensive restructuring thereafter was a direct consequence of Xhaka’s reassuring presence in the middle.