They long ago reached the elite level of club football, and they can now claim to have played on the biggest stage of the international game. Noah Okafor was brought on as a substitute for the Swiss national team after 72 minutes of their World Cup opener against Cameroon to make his first World Cup appearance. Serbia's Strahinja Pavlovic started against Brazil's Selecao.
Perfect start for Noah Okafor
The hard-working Swiss side, who had a second Red Bull on the bench in Philipp Köhn, were not able to get a second goal to seal the game after Noah came on. Our speedy number 77 was able to continually probe the Cameroon defence though with 17 touches of the ball, nine successful passes and a passing accuracy of 75% - in total making an important contribution to a deserved 1-0 win. Three big points were therefore taken in their bid to progress from the group stages, with The Swiss going top of Group G for now. Keep it up Noah and Philipp – we are behind you all the way!
Nothing yet for Pavlo & Co.
They are no points on the board yet for our defensive stalwart Strahinja Pavlovic, who had his hands full against the Brazilian stars of Neymar, Richarlison and Raphael from the start. A brave performance from the Serbs succeeded in keeping the game open for long phases although that was not enough to win points against the South American magicians – with a brace from Richarlison proving the difference at the end.
