SAN FRANCISCO, November 15, (THEWILL) – Spain’s central midfielder Sergio Busquets requested to be substituted due to injury in the second half of Spain’s UEFA Nations League clash with Switzerland on Saturday night.
The Barcelona talent went off on 72 minutes after going down holding his left leg and was replaced by Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke.
In the game, Spain went behind when Switzerland midfielder Remo Freuler opened the scoring after 26 minutes. Fine work from central attacking midfielder Breel Emboli down the right flank was capped with a low drive towards the box to find Freuler who made no mistake, firing a left-footed shot past Unai Simon in goal for Spain.
Real Madrid’s and Spanish captain Sergio Ramos looked set to level the scores from the penalty spot just before the hour mark after a handball in the penalty area. But, Swiss keeper Yann Sommer refused to let that happen.
Unbelievably, when another opportunity came for the Real Madrid man to redeem himself and score from the spot, he failed yet again. For the second time, Sommer came out on top, saving a rather tame effort from the imperial defender who had become quite proficient at putting away such chances.
However, the visitors did manage to rescue a point late on through substitute Gerard Moreno. The Villarreal striker levelled from close range in the 89th minute after a good cross from Sergio Reguilon.
With just a single point from their last two Group A4 matches, Spain are now a point behind Germany ahead of the final game between the sides on Tuesday.
On the day Ramos overtook Italy great Gianluigi Buffon as European football’s most capped footballer, it was clear that he would make headlines but he would not have wanted it this way. Twice he failed to beat Sommer from the spot making the Swiss goalie only the second to save a Ramos penalty after Croatia’s Danijel Subasic in June 2016.
Spain now know they must defeat Germany at the Estadio de La Cartuja on Tuesday, November 17 to finish top of Group A4 and qualify for next year’s finals. Switzerland go into their next tie trailing opponents Ukraine by three points in the battle to avoid relegation.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
