Swiss coach makes strong case for Irish defence

Ireland might not have scored a goal in their last four games but it’s the three clean sheets in those four which preoccupy Vladimir Petkovic.

Asked about his goal-shy opponents, the manager of Group D top seeds Switzerland said: “It’s very hard to judge for me but a new coach can lead to improvements. But what makes me much more worried is that they don’t concede a lot of goals and I remember when we played against them it was very hard to score and we didn’t succeed in the end. That will be the focus now, to try and score against this strong defending team.”