Worst possible ending to Estonia-Switzerland final EURO 2016 qualifier
The Estonian national football team took on Switzerland in Tallinn's A le Coq Arena on Monday night, in what was its last match in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament. The game ended with a last minute own goal by Estonia, putting Switzerland ahead 1-0.
Estonia gave a sturdy performance but failed to see through any of its dozen opportunities. Having kept their net clean for over 90 minutes, the match could not have ended any worse, as Estonia's captain Ragnar Klavan scored an own goal on extra time, literally seconds before the whistle.
To qualify for the play-off round, Estonia needed to beat Switzerland, while both Slovenia and Lithuania lost their respective matches. Estonia also had to overturn a 9-goal difference compared to Slovenia.
Earlier this year, Estonia lost the first match against the Swiss team 3-0, when the two national sides played in Lucerne, Switzerland.
On Friday, Estonia lost its penultimate match against England 2-0.
"Our aim is to be better in our possession game but also to be better in our counterattacks," head coach Magnus Pehrsson said ahead of the game, when commenting on the lessons learned from Friday's game.
Swiss head coach Vladimir Petkovic said Estonia is a strong and well-organized opponent. "Very few goals are scored against them and in the game against England they proved themselves a very compact team."
Editor: M. Oll