Switzerland

Already the ugliest World Cup on every conceivable grounds, it seems like Puma has elected to pay homage to that fact with a horrendous new collection of away kits for its stable of competitors in Qatar — Switzerland, Uruguay, Senegal, Serbia, Ghana and Morocco.   

I feel bad for Switzerland. Here they are, qualifying for major tournament after major tournament with a population the size of Virginia, doing things like eliminating France at Euro 2020, and Puma does something like this to them. It's completely uncalled for. 

Scorching temperatures are one of the many reasons Qatar is the most controversial World Cup host of all time. During June and July, the months in which the World Cup is traditionally held, temperatures in the Arab nation peak around 120 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature at which, unsurprisingly, it is simply unsafe to play a 90+ minute soccer match.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Italy missed out on automatic qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar four months on from their Euro 2020 triumph after they were held to a 0-0 draw by Northern Ireland on Monday.

The Azzurri went into their final Group C qualification clash knowing they needed to win by enough goals to stay ahead of Switzerland to claim a place at next year's finals in Qatar.

I can’t tell if José Mourinho is trolling Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, trying to encourage him to do the right thing or both, but the Mourinho Xhaka comment on Instagram has brought something to my attention I did not expect.

Xhaka tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the international break, keeping the midfielder out of his Switzerland’s friendly with Greece on Wednesday and putting his availability for World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Northern Ireland into doubt. 

Days before a highly anticipated England-Italy final, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin admitted the Euro 2020 format was unfair and said he wouldn’t do it again in the future.

Obviously. How else would England have reached a major final for the first time since 1966? (Kidding, maybe.)

Switzerland ran out of gas in a shootout defeat to Spain in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals on Friday. The Swiss had two tame penalties saved and a third blasted into the stands as Spain won the shootout 3-1 after a 1-1 draw in regulation. But take nothing away from the performance of goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who valiantly gave Switzerland a chance with nine saves. 

Spain and Switzerland advanced from two of the most exciting matches we’ve seen in years on Monday. Now both have to refocus on the quarterfinal with just three days of rest. The18’s Spain vs Switzerland prediction, preview and how-to-watch guide will have you ready to find out if the Swiss can pull off another memorable upset, or if Spain continues to grow into this tournament. 

For all of our Euro 2020 quarterfinal predictions, click here.

The18’s renowned data scientist introduced the team to an API (application programming interface) that gave predictions for games in the European Championship. We naturally took that as a challenge to see if we could predict the outcomes of games better than the algorithm. We’ll show the results from the Round of 16 before sharing our Euro 2020 quarterfinal predictions.

Five of our staff, including Grant the data scientist, took the challenge to outsmart the algorithm. After eight games in the Round of 16, this is what the leaderboard looks like.