Inevitably, it was Kieffer Moore who came to the rescue for Wales. The striker, who used to juggle lifeguard duties while playing part-time for Truro City, has become an unlikely fans’ favourite and here he delivered his most defining moment yet, steering a delightful header into the far corner to cancel out Breel Embolo’s opener. Wales feared they had pressed self-destruct when the Switzerland substitute Mario Gavranovic found the net with his first touch six minutes from time but the goal was ruled offside by VAR.
“Don’t take me home,” came the familiar refrain from a bright-red pocket of this stadium and, in the end, they could have won it themselves had Aaron Ramsey latched on to a teasing cross by the substitute David Brooks. In truth, Wales lived dangerously at times with Danny Ward called into several smart saves, but a point gives them hope of reaching the knockout stages and a platform to build on before matches against Turkey and Italy.
After Wales fell behind, suddenly the pitch inside this mammoth and eerily sparsely populated arena felt that much bigger – Embolo was causing havoc and enjoying giving a wounded defence the runaround – but, spurred on by a few dozen hardy supporters in a shaded block of the stadium, Robert Page’s side refused to die. Ben Davies drove over from the edge of the box and then, on 74 minutes, came a short-corner routine and a moment Moore will treasure for ever. Joe Morrell dinked a beautiful cross towards the penalty spot and Moore eluded Fabian Schär to glance in.
Despite the clamour from Wales supporters for Moore to lead the line, Page’s decision to hand the towering striker his first competitive start since October – and his first since Page took the reins from Ryan Giggs – was something of a curveball. Page had persisted with playing a false 9 in recent friendlies but Ramsey dropped into his favoured No 10 pocket here. When Wales reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals, Moore was plugging away in non-league football with Forest Green Rovers.
Moore went closest in a first half in which Switzerland dominated possession. Daniel James picked out the striker with 15 minutes gone and Moore intelligently peeled off his marker, Ricardo Rodríguez, to send a header looping towards the far corner, but Yann Sommer flew to his right to palm over. James caused problems on the counterattack and the winger, having already breezed past two defenders on halfway, was the subject of a cynical body check by Schär, just as Wales eyed a promising four v two scenario.
It was Schär’s shrewd flick from Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner that appeared to give Switzerland encouragement after the initial sparring. The Newcastle defender met Shaqiri’s low ball and nonchalantly turned it goalwards. It forced Ward into an instinctive save, as the goalkeeper spread his legs to repel the effort at his near post. Moments later the referee, Clément Turpin, called for a replacement ball, an early indicator of the entertaining toing and froing.
Switzerland threw no surprises and seemed to lull Wales into a false sense of security as they slowly tightened their grip. The authoritative Granit Xhaka captained the side, driving forward powerfully from midfield while the striker Haris Seferovic passed up a hat-trick of inviting first-half openings, the best of which came via Embolo. He cleverly occupied Chris Mepham inside the box before unselfishly playing in his strike partner, who could only blaze over.
The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email
Switzerland started the second half as they finished the first and when they scored four minutes after the interval, Wales could hardly have any complaints. Embolo sped between Mepham and Joe Rodon with ease before firing a shot at goal that Ward pushed away for a corner. Embolo puffed his cheeks in frustration but there was a giant smile on his face seconds later, when the 24-year-old beat Connor Roberts to head in the resulting corner. For the brilliant Embolo, such delight would not last.
