Switzerland needed a response after limping to a draw with Qatar, and it delivered an emphatic one in the second outing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the teams’ second match of the 2026 World Cup on Thursday, a 4-1 dismantling of Bosnia and Herzegovina \u2014 lit up by 20-year-old Johan Manzambi \u2014 pushed Murat Yakin’s side to the brink of the knockout rounds, leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina in real trouble.<\/p>\n
Johan Manzambi and Ricardo Rodriguez celebrate Switzerland’s third goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n Remember the name, if you haven’t already. At 20, Manzambi came off the bench and scored a brace in 19 minutes. The power, the fearlessness and the perfect positioning \u2014 and on a side built around experience \u2014 he’s the jolt of youth Switzerland has been waiting for.\u00a0<\/p>\n Coming-out parties at a World Cup tend to be the start of something. This one felt like it. Let’s see what the Freiburg midfielder has in store for us going forward. Even before the tournament, he had a reputation as\u00a0one of Europe’s most interesting and versatile young midfielders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Putting\u00a0in this type of performance at a World Cup shows he’s oozing personality.<\/p>\n Quick \u2014 name Switzerland’s superstar. You can’t, really, and that’s the whole point. There’s no Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 here, no name to sell a poster.\u00a0<\/p>\n What there is instead is a deeply experienced, ruthlessly organized European side that has now reached the knockout rounds at three straight World Cups.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Frederic J. Brown \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n I’ve called Tarik Muharemovi\u0107 the most underrated center back at this World Cup, and I’m not backing off it: composed, aggressive in the duel and a level above what’s around him. Which is exactly why this hurts so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n The red card brings a suspension, ruling him out of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s final group game against Qatar \u2014 the one match on its schedule it genuinely fancied. And this is a team that does not score in open play.\u00a0<\/p>\n It arrived having drawn a run of games 1-1, grinding out results rather than dominating anyone; the goals have been the problem all along. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most dangerous striker is a middle-aged 40-year-old Edin D\u017eeko.\u00a0<\/p>\n Strip out the man who holds the back together, and the margin for error disappears entirely. Bosnia and Herzegovina needed Muharemovi\u0107 for all 270 minutes of this group. Now, it’ll have to do the hardest part without him.<\/p>\n A day ago, all four teams in Group B sat level on a point apiece after two opening 1-1 draws. Not anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n Switzerland’s four-goal haul rockets it to the top of the table and to the doorstep of the round of 32. Beat Canada in the finale, and it’s likely through as group winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bosnia and Herzegovina, by contrast, is suddenly staring at the exit: still on a single point, goal difference shredded and now without Muharemovi\u0107 for a must-win against Qatar. The table isn’t fully set \u2014 Canada and Qatar meet Thursday, and that result, regardless of what it is, reshuffles everything beneath the Swiss.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the headline is simple enough. Switzerland seized control of this group in 90 minutes, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s dream of a first-ever knockout berth just got a whole lot harder to reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Switzerland needed a response after limping to a draw with Qatar, and it delivered an emphatic one in the second outing.\u00a0 In the teams’ second match of the 2026 World Cup on Thursday, a 4-1 dismantling of Bosnia and Herzegovina \u2014 lit up by 20-year-old Johan Manzambi \u2014 pushed Murat Yakin’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}