Switzerland complete qualifiers with last-gasp win in Estonia

Published 10/13/2015, 2:15 AM EDT

REUTERS – Switzerland played like a team already eyeing next year’s Euro 2016 finals as they rounded off their qualifying campaign with a listless 1-0 win in Estonia on Monday.

The Swiss, who sealed their place in next year’s finals with 7-0 win over San Marino on Friday which guaranteed second place in Group E, made chances but lacked urgency against a side needing a freakish set of results to claim a playoff spot.

The game did come to life late on with Ats Purje wasting a good chance for Estonia before Breel Embolo’s trickery forced Ragnar Klavan to bundle the ball into his own net in stoppage time.

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Xherdan Shaqiri had been Switzerland’s most likely goalscorer in the first half before he was substituted.

The second half was littered with substitutions and stoppages before the late excitement.

Switzerland ended with 21 points, nine behind group winners England who won all 10 of their games.

Estonia ended with 10 points, six behind Slovenia who will enter the playoffs.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.