World Cup 2018: Xherdan Shaqiri backs Switzerland to be surprise package in Russia

Xherdan Shaqiri feels that Switzerland could be the surprise package at this World Cup and benefit from the fact “people don’t know everything about us”, after Vladimir Petkovic’s side put in an impressively defiant performance to draw 1-1 with Brazil.

The Swiss made the favourites look undeserving of their reputation, while bolstering their own, and could have got more out of the game. Shaqiri now insists they want much more out of the tournament.

World Cup history is filled with sides who have unexpectedly gone on surges to the latter stages, while playing with a freedom the big sides can’t, with Romania 1994, Bulgaria 1994, Croatia 1998, Turkey 2002 and Senegal 2002 the most high-profile recent examples.

Shaqiri - who set up Steven Zuber’s equaliser with a corner - feels the Swiss have sufficient qualities to do similar.

“Yes maybe people don't know everything about us – but I think for us that is a positive because it means there is not a lot of pressure on us.

“We know our qualities, we know we have very good players in our side and a lot of players who are playing in the top leagues in Europe and we have seen that for a few years now.

“Of course [we believe] - but we always want to do better. Our goal is to go through to the next round. This is a good result but now we face two more difficult games so it won't be easy… 1-1 is a fair result and very positive for us.

“We go into every game to try to win - even against the big teams like Brazil. When they went in front we tried to keep calm and we deserved to score and deserved the result.”

Most pointedly, the performance proved Shaqiri’s claim that they don’t fear anyone and will be aiming to win every game.

“No of course not - we have the quality to win games. We always try to be positive in our play. It will be difficult against Costa Rica and Serbia but we have shown our quality against Brazil and that gives us confidence to move forward and make sure we are in the knock-out stage.”