Swiss sign off on winning note, beat Portugal 2-0

“I think we owed it to Koebi Kuhn and the crowd to get a win and we showed today we could do it. I think it was a worthy send off for the coach,” said Yakin.

“We wanted to achieve something at this European Championship on home soil. We’re still very disappointed about the two defeats but this has helped us recover a little.”

Kuhn, who stands down after seven years in the job, said: “It is a huge joy, of course, to win but also some tears of disappointment because I felt we deserved at least a point from our first two games.

“But although we’re going home we did the most important thing – making our fans happy.”

The commitment shown by Portugal’s reserves, looking to force their way into Luiz Felipe Scolari’s plans for the quarter-finals, and the eliminated Swiss belied the fact that the result would not alter the standings.

The Swiss had the first real scare in the 18th minute when a free kick by Nani from outside the box was touched on by central defender Pepe and goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuehler reacted quickly to turn the ball upwards on to the bar.

Goalkeeper Ricardo, one of only three first-choice Portugal players to start the match, tipped a shot from Gokhan Inler over his bar and close to halftime dived to his left to push out a header by Yakin.

Helder Postiga should have scored when Nani robbed Inler on the left and crossed from deep but the striker’s shot was blocked by Philippe Senderos on the line.

Postiga also had the ball in the net but was unlucky to be ruled offside, while Nani hit a post in the 53rd minute when he ran on to Rau Meireles’s fine through-ball from deep.

Yakin broke the deadlock when Derdiyok’s telling pass eluded Pepe and left him to shoot under Ricardo.

He put the game beyond doubt from the spot after Meira brought down Swiss substitute Tranquillo Barnetta.

Scolari was not overly concerned by the defeat and was just happy to get through the match without any injury worries.

“What we had to do was win the first two matches,” he said.

“We still don’t know our opponent (the runners-up from Group B) but anyway I’ll have the full squad available, there are no injuries.”