Xhaka, “proud” of Akanji and asked Yakin to continue coaching in Switzerland

Granite XhakaSwiss midfielder, said this Saturday that he was “proud” of Manuel Akanji, the only player in his team not to shoot in the penalty shootout against England, and said he wanted his coach to continue in the post, Murat Yakin.

Akanji is one of the protagonists of the match between England and Switzerland. He missed the Swiss team’s first penalty after 120 minutes of play in which the score ended 1-1. Then, in front of the media, Xhaka defended his teammate and his coach, who a few months ago was questioned for signing an irregular qualification phase.

“It’s brutally hard and very difficult to find the right words. You can’t blame the whole team. Losing like that is doubly painful because we showed good things. That’s football, there’s only one winner. Whether it’s deserved or not , not significant after 120 minutes. We can be proud of ourselves, we gave everything. Unfortunately luck was not on our side in the penalty shootout. It won’t be the first or the last Akanji missed the penalty. But if we look at what he has achieved in recent years, punishment is only a small part of it. “I know the feeling,” he said.

“Something like that can only make a player stronger. I am proud of Akanji and the team. We showed a lot of passion in this tournament, even without the ball. It hurts a lot but we can be proud,” he added while Murat Yakin defended: “Under pressure he showed again that he is the right person for this team. He planned every game well. You can see that together we can achieve something. This team will not collapse and I hope it recovered with this coach and with these players Overall “We can be proud of ourselves. We want the coach to stay,” he said.

He also spoke about his physical condition and said that he suffered a muscle injury from which he needs to recover quickly in order to be in time to play the match against England: “On Monday I was diagnosed with torn adductor muscle fiber. But I’m really looking forward to playing and I’ve tried everything to get on the field this week well and I feel that the team needs me to send a signal that I’m ready to play even though I’m hurt, ” he says.

“Yesterday I was able to train for the first time with the team and it worked. Today I saw that I couldn’t play long balls or shoot at the goal. But everything else went well. Now it’s time for a vacation , a little rest and to see how the adductors on the one hand I am on vacation with good feelings and on the other hand with bad feelings,” he concluded.