The Swiss national football team (also known as the Schweizer Nati in German, La Nati in French, Squadra nazionale in Italian) is the national football team of Switzerland. The team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.
Its best performances in the World Cup have been reaching the quarter-finals three times, in 1934, 1938 and when the country hosted the event in 1954. Switzerland also won silver at the 1924 Olympics. The youth teams have been more successful, winning the 2002 U-17 European Championship and the 2009 U-17 World Cup. In 2006, Switzerland set a FIFA World Cup record by being eliminated from the competition despite not conceding a goal, losing to Ukraine in a penalty shootout in the last 16, by failing to score a single penalty – becoming the first national team in Cup history to do this. They would not concede a goal until their second group stage game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, giving up a goal in the 74th minute against Chile, setting a World Cup Finals record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. Switzerland co-hosted Euro 2008 with Austria, making their third appearance in the competition. As with the two previous appearances, they did not clear the group stages.
Euro 2004
Qualification: Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia and Ireland. Group stage: After a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France, and thus ended on the last place in group B of the main tournament. Trivia: Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, beating the record (set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney) by three months.
Euro 2008
Qualification: Switzerland co-hosted the Euro 2008 together with Austria and was therefore automatically qualified. Group stage: Switzerland played all matches of group A in Basel. After losing the opening game 0–1 to the Czech Republic and the second game 1–2 against Turkey, they were already eliminated from their home tournament after only two games. Consolation came from the 2–0 victory over Portugal in the final group stage game. Trivia: All 3 goals by Switzerland were scored by Hakan Yakin.
Euro 2012
Switzerland is in Group G of qualifing round for the Euro Cup 2012 and still she have not played any match. Its companions in this groups are England, Montenegro, Wales and Bulgaria.
Competitive record
So far the Swiss have earned no major trophy. The closest they have come was the quarter finals of the World Cup on three occasions (1934, 1938 and 1954) and they won a silver medal in the 1924 Olympic games in Paris. The youth teams have been more successful, as the U-17-squad became European champions in 2002 and World champions in 2009 and the U-21 squad qualified for the semi-finals of the U-21-Euro 2002.