Zurich, Switzerland - Monday evening was one of jubilation in Zurich, and indeed, throughout Switzerland: the Schweizer Nati (Swiss National Team) advanced to the quarterfinal in the UEFA Euro 2020 championship (European soccer tournament). As you've probably guessed, this championship was supposed to be held last year, but was obviously delayed due to the pandemic. Despite that, the tournament organizers have persisted in calling it Euro 2020.
This is the first time Switzerland has advanced this far in the tournament. The victory came over a juggernaut, the reviled French. Sports books significantly favored the French in this match (a $100 bet on Switzerland would have paid out $550) and in fact the French were the favorite or among the favorites to win it all.
Indeed, the Swiss were down 3-1 into the later minutes of the game. The crowd gathered around our local bar, Le Calvados, was sullen and quiet. With ten minutes to go, the prominent cranium of Haris Seferovic, showing early signs of male pattern baldness, leapt out to convert a delivery by teammate Zuber with a stunning header. The lead was narrowed to 3-2. This being soccer - a sport characterized rather more by milling about than scoring - the odds were still long, and this seemed rather like a consolation prize than a path to victory. But then, just a few minutes later, Mario Gavranović scored again for the Swiss, this time using his foot and thus sparing his precious remaining brain cells.
After 30 minutes of overtime, which mostly consisted of winded players jogging up and down the pitch half-heartedly, the game was decided by penalty kicks (PKs). Each team traded turns shooting 5 PKs. With each agonizing shot, the tension of the crowd around Le Calvados increased. Cortisol steadily mixed with alcohol in our blood streams brought us all closer to a collective heart attack. France took the 10th PK after they had scored on their first four and Switzerland had scored on all five. France's Kylian Mbappé, their star, faced up against Switzerland's devastatingly attractive goalkeeper, Yann Sommer.
Mbappé missed! The neighborhood erupted! People were dancing and chanting things that Hannah and I could not understand. Motorists driving through the neighborhood honked (a most unusual thing in Switzerland) in celebration as they tried to avoid drunken revelers wandering across the roads. The proprietors of Le Calvados carried cases of free beer out to the platz for the unlikely celebration. All-in-all, it was an excellent evening.
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