Romania 1 Switzerland 1: Vladimir Petkovic’s side goes top of Group A after fighting back from a goal down in their second Euro 2016 match
Bogdan Stanku put his side ahead with his second penalty of the tournament before Admir Mehmedi equalised
GRANIT XHAKA warned Switzerland’s goal-shy strikers to get their act together if they want to make a real impression at Euro 2016.
Arsenal’s new £30million signing was unimpressed by the quality of his team-mates’ finishing as they let two points slip at the Parc des Princes.
Xhaka again pulled all the strings in midfield as the Swiss carved out 19 chances against a Romanian side who were dead on their feet by the final whistle.
Yet they still needed a sensational 57th-minute strike by Admir Memhedi to salvage a point which leaves them all but through to the knockout stage.
Xhaka, though, is not ready to settle for scraping through to the last 16.
He said: “We can’t be satisfied with four points. We want to win our final group game against France and we are not scared of them.
“I can’t say we’re very happy with this result because it was one of the best performances of the national team but we still couldn’t win.
“We had so many chances but we couldn’t finish them off and that’s the one thing this team is lacking.
“We won’t get seven or eight decent opportunities against France so we have to finish the chances that we do get.
“We can’t rely on another perfect strike like tonight. A shot like that doesn’t happen every day.”
Xhaka had good reason to be frustrated after the Swiss missed out on a win which would have put them in the Euro knockouts for their first time in their history.
Just as in the 1-0 win against Albania in their Group A opener, Eintracht Frankfurt striker Haris Seferovic was the chief culprit.
He squandered three clear opportunities before Romania seized an 18th- minute lead through Bogdan Stancu’s penalty — awarded for shirt-pulling by Swiss skipper Stephan Lichsteiner.
Stancu, who was also on the spot against France on Friday, became the first player since Spain’s Gaizka Mendieta in 2000, to score two penalties at the Euros.
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The Romanians almost doubled their lead when Cristian Sapunaru hit a post just before half-time.
But Swiss pressure paid off when Mehmedi latched on to Johan Djourou’s knock-down to leather an unstoppable shot into the far corner.
Romania boss Anghel Iordanescu admitted: “We lost to a fabulous goal by Dmitiri Payet in our first game — and now we have conceded to another remarkable shot.
“We really suffered physically and it was difficult for us to continue the fight late on.
“But this point is vital to our chances and we know that we still have a good chance to go through by beating Albania in our final game.”
DREAM TEAM RATINGS
Romania: Tatarusanu 7, Pintilli 6 (Hoban, 45 6), Rat 6 (Filip, 62, 6) Stancu 7 (Andone, 84, 5) , Sapunaru, Cristian 7, Prepelita 6, Grigore 6, Torje 7, Chipciu 6, Chiriches 6, Keseru 6
Booked: Prepelita, Grigore, Chipciu, Keseru
Switzerland: Sommer 6, Seferovic 6, Dzemaili 7, Lichtsteiner 7, Djourou 7, STAR MAN Xhaka 8, Rodriguez 8, Mehmedi 7,Schar 7, Behrami 6, Shaqiri 7
Booked: Xhaka, Embolo
