Coach: Kobi Kuhn
Tactics: Efficient without being particularly exciting.
Star Player: Johann Vogel - AC Milan midfielder who provides a steadying influence in midfield.
Verdict: Have already surpassed expectations in reaching the finals after coming through a bruising play-off against Turkey. Happy to mix it physically, they are also capable of playing a neat passing game with Vogel at the hub. And with striker Alexander Frei a danger up front, the Swiss may surprise a few.
Ten things you didn’t know about Switzerland
1. The last legal execution of a witch took place in Switzerland in 1782.
2. It was once against Swiss law to slam your car door.
3. In the Blind Cow Restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland, guests feast in complete darkness while being served by blind or visually impaired staff.
4. Women were only fully granted the right to vote in all parts of the country in 1990.
5. Swiss law forbids you to mow your front lawn while dressed as Elvis Presley.
6. The oldest man to ever score a hole-in-one in golf was the Swiss 99-year-old Otto Bucher.
7. Every Swiss male citizen has to do military service, starting at 20 and ending at 42 - during which time they get to keep their guns at home.
8. Switzerland is currently building the longest tunnel in the world: the AlpTransit Link, which will be 57.07 km/35.46 miles long when finished in 2010.
9. For a country supposedly saturated with snowy peaks, Switzerland also plays host to one of Europe’s largest concentrations of kiwis, peaches, figs and scorpions.
10. The Swiss are not known for coming first at anything important. They were second to climb Everest, have the sixth highest life expectancy in the world, and remain the second to last country in the whole world to join the United Nations (which they did in 2002, leaving just the Vatican City out in the cold).
