Overview information
Qatar is the host of the 2022 World Cup, but it is a tournament to be forgotten for them. At that time, Qatar lost all 3 matches, scored 1 goal, and conceded 7 goals.
World Cup 2026 marks the first time the Qatar team has passed the qualifiers. In both qualifying stages in Asia, striker Almoez Ali played excellently when scoring 12 goals/16 matches. This achievement is only behind Erling Haaland, who scored 16 goals for the Norwegian team in the European regional qualifiers.
Among the Asian teams participating in the 2026 World Cup, Qatar is the team that has lost the most in the qualifiers (5 matches). More worryingly, in the last 3 matches, this West Asian team has also not scored any goals. They have successively lost to Tunisia 0-3, lost to Republic of Ireland 0-2 and drawn with El Salvador 0-0.
Contrary to Qatar, Switzerland is a regular guest of the World Cup. The European team has continuously participated in the World Cup since 2006 and has both passed the group stage in the last 3 tournaments.
Under the guidance of coach Murat Yakin, the Swiss team has been unbeaten in all 6 qualifying matches, including 4 wins. Along with England, Switzerland is one of the two teams that has not been led in any match in the European qualifiers.
In 4 friendly matches preparing for the 2026 World Cup, the Swiss team also played quite well. They beat Jordan 4-1, drew with Norway 0-0 and Australia 1-1, and lost to Germany 3-4.
Striker Breel Embolo will be a noteworthy factor for the Swiss team. He is 1 of 5 players who have scored more than one goal at both the 2022 World Cup and EURO 2024, along with Harry Kane, Kai Havertz, Niclas Füllkrug and Cody Gakpo.
Switzerland (ranked 19th in the world) is unbeaten in the last six World Cup opening matches, since the 0-5 defeat to West Germany in 1966. They are confident that they will extend this impressive streak when facing Qatar, who are 37 places lower than them in the FIFA rankings.
Head-to-head record between Qatar and Switzerland
The two countries have only faced each other once in their history, which was a friendly match in November 2018, when Qatar narrowly won 1-0 against the host team at the Stadio di Cornaredo stadium in Lugano, Switzerland.
The only goal in that match was scored by Akram Afif in the 86th minute. Afif is 1 of 9 players from the Qatar team participating in the match against Switzerland 8 years ago who were called up by coach Lopetegui to the 2026 World Cup squad.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has seven remaining players from the 2018 defeat in the 26-man squad participating in this year's tournament, including captain Granit Xhaka and midfielder Remo Freuler.
Expected lineup:
Mahmud Abunada, Al-Oui, Boualem Khoukhi, Pedro Miguel, Homam Ahmed, Jassem Gaber, Ahmed Fathi, Moustafa Laye, Almoez Ali, Akram Afif, Edmilson Junior.
Gregor Kobel, Silvan Widmer, Manuel Akanji, Nico Elvedi, Ricardo Rodriguez; Granit Xhaka, Remo Freuler, Ruben Vargas, Fabian Rieder, Dan Ndoye, Embolo.
