Yakin at the double for Swiss - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Yakin at the double for Swiss

Hakan Yakin's slick second-half double gave Switzerland coach Kobi Kuhn a victorious send-off as the co-hosts bowed out of Euro 2008 with a 2-0 win from their final match against a much-changed Portugal side.

The Young Boys midfielder, who also netted his team's only other goal of the tournament in Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Turkey, struck 19 minutes from time and then again from the penalty spot 11 minutes later to secure the triumph.

The Portuguese may count themselves a little unfortunate, having hit the woodwork through both Pepe and Ricardo Quaresma, although Gokhan Inler was also denied by the frame of the goal for the Swiss.

With Portugal already guaranteed top spot in Group A and Switzerland knowing they could not climb off the bottom no matter what the result, there was on the face of it little to play for on Sunday.

The first opportunity of the match arrived after seven minutes, when an audacious back-heeled cross from Quaresma was headed over the bar by Helder Postiga.

Ten minutes later, Pepe got a touch on Nani's low free-kick but Zuberbuhler did enough to divert the effort onto the underside of the crossbar.

Shortly before half-time, Postiga was put through by Quaresma and had the ball in the net but the strike was ruled out for offside.

The game continued in much the same vein after the break, with both sides looking for the breakthrough but initially lacking the cutting edge.

The Swiss took the lead when with the influential Barnetta played in Yakin for a neat finish through the legs of Ricardo after 71 minutes.

And 11 minutes later the advantage was doubled. Austrian referee Konrad Plautz pointed to the spot after Barnetta hit the turf under the challenge of Fernando Meira and man of the match Yakin made no mistake from 12 yards, firing past Ricardo and into the top-left corner to put the result beyond doubt.

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