11 June 2015
Stephan Lichtsteiner played the first half as his Switzerland side eased past Liechtenstein 3-0 during Wednesday evening’s exhibition match in Thun.
The Rossocrociati, who approached the meeting on a five-game unbeaten run in all competitions, took the lead after 27 minutes when Blerim Dzemaili collected Xherdan Shaqiri's pass before firing home.
Lichtsteiner was then replaced at the half-time interval by Silvan Widmer, with Switzerland going on to seal the success in the space of eight second-half minutes.
First Shaqiri converted a fizzing 30-yard strike to double the hosts' advantage on the hour mark, before Dzemaili subsequently made it 3-0 courtesy of a fine free-kick.
Vladimir Petkovic’s men are next in action on Sunday, when they travel to Lithuania for a crucial EURO 2016 qualifier. The Swiss currently lie third in Group E, six points behind pacesetters England.
Elsewhere, new signing Sami Khedira entered the field of play as a half-time substitute for Bastian Schweinsteiger during Germany’s 2-1 friendly home loss to USA in Cologne.
Despite going ahead through Mario Gotze’s strike, last year's World Cup winners were pegged back by a Mikkel Diskerud finish just shy of the break. And the scoreline was turned on its head with three minutes to play when forward Bobby Wood struck from all of 20 yards.
The drama didn’t end there though as Khedira almost grabbed a late equaliser, only for the newly-signed Juventus midfielder to see his header crash off the crossbar deep into stoppage time.
Die Mannschaft will now regroup before heading to the Estadio Do Algarve where they lock horns with minnows Gibraltar in a EURO 2016 Group D qualifier on Saturday evening.
Tonight’s international action sees Alvaro Morata’s Spain host Costa Rica in a friendly in Leon from 22.00 CEST, before Arturo Vidal and his Chile side get the 2015 Copa America started with a Group A encounter against Ecuador at 01.30 early on Friday morning.
