Football – Switzerland made a flying start to their Euro 2024 campaign with a commanding 3-1 win over a blunder-prone Hungary yesterday, with first international goals for Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer, and Breel Embolo netting on his return from injury.
Defending champions Italy recovered from the shock of conceding to Albania after 23 seconds to begin their Euro 2024 campaign with a 2-1 win in front of a largely Albanian crowd.
Chasing a place in the knockout rounds in their sixth consecutive major tournament, Switzerland were a classy outfit, composed, organised and quick on the attack as a Hungary side billed as the tournament’s dark horses made countless errors and struggled to get into the game.
In only his second international match, Duah fired the Swiss ahead with a cool finish after 12 minutes when he was put through by Aebischer, who doubled the lead on the stroke of halftime with a superb curling shot from outside the box after sloppy defending.
Hungary were shell-shocked but improved in the second half, with Barnabas Varga squandering a clear chance when he found himself in space but headed wide of the post.
He did find the net in the 66th minute, however, crouching low to head home Dominik Szoboszlai’s neat cross to spark a frantic effort to fight back which the Swiss fended off resolutely, responding with a flurry of chances of their own.
Substitute Embolo sealed the win after another Hungarian error in stoppage time, lifting the ball over the keeper to trigger frenzied Swiss celebrations.
Albania’s Nedim Bajrami pounced on Federico Dimarco’s poor throw-in to smash the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma for the fastest ever European Championship goal.
Italy equalised in the 11th minute through Alessandro Bastoni’s towering header and Nicolo Barella put them ahead five minutes later, meeting a poor clearance with a superb strike from the edge of the box.
Although Italy controlled the game after Bajrami’s goal, they created few clearcut chances in the second half.
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