Tami applauds Switzerland's collective excellence

Switzerland coach Pierluigi Tami heralded the top-class team performance which earned his side's second win in Group A. After Xherdan Shaqiri’s show-stealing display against Denmark, it was a collective effort that secured the 2-0 victory against Iceland in Aalborg.

For Iceland coach Eyjólfur Sverrisson, there was the regret that his team had yet to reveal their true potential at this, their debut UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The blow of conceding a first-minute goal on Tuesday ultimately proved too great a setback for his charges.

Pierluigi Tami, Switzerland coach
It is great. Six points from two matches is what every coach would have wanted. Scoring after a minute made our job much easier. Then we missed chances and I was a bit worried when it was still 1-0 after having so much of the play. But it was deserved when we got the second before half-time, which was a fair reflection of the performance.

The second half we had a few more problems but the players continued to work hard and they deserved to get the points. I also thought the substitutes helped us to see the game out. We have to wait for the later game to see if we have got through, and if we have qualified it would be nice to give an opportunity in the next match to certain players who need game time.

We talked a lot about Xherdan Shaqiri after the first match, but one of the strengths of this team is the group and the spirit – we have lots of important players and today Fabian Frei and Innocent Emeghara scored while Mario Gavranović, who hadn’t played for a while because of injury, made a really strong return.

The defenders also played at a high level and we saw a lot of quality throughout the side. The forwards did a great job of pressing while the defenders stopped their better players getting into the game. We are happy with the performance and with our position but we still haven't achieved anything.

Eyjólfur Sverrisson, Iceland coach
The team were absolutely shocked by the first goal after one minute. I saw a team that was very nervous and not taking its part in the game. The first half was actually one of the worst we have ever played together. In the second half we changed to 4-4-2 because we realised we weren't able to play through the midfield.

We played with the long ball and aimed to pick up second balls to try and create chances. Obviously the luck isn't with us now. Yes, we aren't creating goals but also we had one cleared off the line. We tried to change our luck, but Switzerlnd were the better team and that was clear.

Our preparation was not the best, only a few days to prepare, and that could be one reason we haven't shown our true potential. We haven't shown our best yet; hopefully against Denmark. The Belarus game we controlled until the red card changed the whole game. Today the goal after one minute was a big shock and after that we made a lot of bad decisions. It is our first tournament and the players are learning a lot from it.