The small fishing nation of the Faroe Islands might have been non-existent in most of their qualifiers in their history, but they have started to become a much more defensive unit in recent years. They will be playing host to Switzerland on Friday, June 9th, who have been flawless in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers so far, as they have won all 5 matches so far, even defeating the 2016 EURO Cup champions Portugal in the process.
Switzerland (5-0-0) made a very successful run at last year’s EURO Cup, where they went through the group stage undefeated against Albania, Romania and France, and really stood great against Poland in the knock-out round, but were eventually eliminated in the penalty shoot-out. They now have a great shot to top the group, as they have already defeated the other big team, and they slightly have the upper hand now. They have made great strides in improving their national team over the years, and this year couldn’t be any different. They have won all 5 of their matches so far, having scored 10 goals in the process, against just 3 conceded. They started off with a solid 0-2 win at home against their prime competitiors for the top spot, Portugal. They proceeded to record road wins against Hungary (3-2) and Andorra (2-1), before a couple of clean sheet wins at home against the Faroe Islands (0-2) and Latvia (0-1).
The Faroe Islands (1-2-2) are one of the teams that have traditionally been weak, as the small nation of fishermen has usually manned the National Team with semi-professional players. However, they have made a few good strides in recent years in their attempt to escape from that group of minnows. They have actually been pretty good in the qualifiers, given the low standards of previous years. They started off with a solid goal-less draw against the much tougher Hungary at home, before defeating Latvia by 2-0 on the road. However, they naturally lost to both the best teams in the group, Portugal (6-0 at home) and Switzerland (0-2 on the road), before yet another draw, this time against Andorra. It’s not like they will be able to challenge any of the top two spots, but they are currently sitting at the 4th spot of the group, having two teams below them in the standings. That has never happened for them, as it was usually the Faroe Islands who were sitting at the bottom. They will be looking to finish as high as possible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they caused problems to their opponents here.