Switzerland ended the upset and again ruled a World Cup playoff against Italy, the current European champion, who was unable to win in Belfast over Northern Ireland (0-0) with his opponent’s commitment and over Bulgaria. (4-0) while England stamped its passport to Qatar with a crushing defeat for San Marino.

Group C in the European qualifying stage would send Switzerland as the first secret team, a highly competitive team that managed to delay the four-times world champion’s return to the World Cup for a few more months and force her to rekindle the ‘ghosts of the past’ that they left out of Russia in the ‘play-off’ against Sweden.

Combined, the two arrived tied on points, with “Azzurra” two ahead of goal difference, and had to win their last game. Only Murat Yakin did so, as they did in the first edition of the League of Nations to leave Belgium, crushing Bulgaria in a brilliant second run, while Roberto Mancini couldn’t score anything against Northern Ireland.

Switzerland always gave the impression that they would win their game, even though they didn’t finish it until the second half. In both Windsor Park and Swissporarena there were no goals in the first 45 minutes, but in Lucerne the locals collapsed after the four-goal break, Okafor, Vargas, Itten and Froller who ended up putting more pressure on the champions. Europe, not so bright and decisive in Belfast despite what was at stake which “gave” a direct ticket to the Swiss.

For their part, in another duel in which something was at stake, England, as planned, ratified the direct virtual ticket that was in their possession and that she would lose only if she did not register for her visit to the humble San Marino.

There was no emotion as Maguire opened the scoring in six minutes and from there the planned trip culminated in a 0-10 win for European runners-up, led by Harry Kane who scored four of his six goals in the first half. The other scorers were Smith Rowe, Mings, Abraham, Saka and Fabri in his own net.