These aren't happy times for Swiss football fans. Over the years the very least we would have expected from the national side would have been a good home record with a well-marshalled defence and the odd upset in a low-scoring match at a big tournament. Just ask Terry Venables' England or Vicente Del Bosque's Spain.
But the current side has seen its star players age and remain in the side purely on reputation with very little fresh blood coming through to replace them. The result is a third-place in the current standings of a weak-looking Group G, six points adrift of the mighty Montenegro.
I can almost still hear the boos coming from my television set in the aftermath of that lacklustre 0-0 home draw to Montenegro but in fairness to Fabio Capello's England, they've been pretty decent in qualifying, that match aside. That included a good 3-1 win over in Switzerland and a professional display away to Wales, albeit one which wouldn't make a video of even the Top 200 great England performances.
There's no Wayne Rooney for England after a needless booking in that Wales match but that may not be a bad thing. The Manchester United star is always very passionate about playing for England but he wouldn't really have been in the right frame of mind to play in this match anyway after that Champions League heartbreak. Rooney scored a great goal but it was a largely frustrating evening for him and just like two years ago, he hardly saw any of the ball. Rio Ferdinand also played on Saturday but there will be no lack of motivation to shine in this match; the man playing alongside him in defence - John Terry - will be wearing the captain's armband which Ferdinand was controversially stripped of back in March due to concerns over his long-term fitness.
Match Odds
Stats, form and well, common sense, all suggest England should win this match at 1.39. But you didn't need me to tell you that. We could try and hope that England didn't get off to the best of starts with most of the players not having been in action for the past couple of weeks and attempt a lay-to-back strategy but the stats suggest that's not a good idea. With the exception of that draw with Montenegro where they didn't score at all, England scored within the first 10 minutes of all their other matches in this campaign and unsurprisingly it was the first goal of the match. All of which means chances to back England at a bigger price In-Play may be few and far between.
Over/Under 2.5 Goals
England's results in this campaign have been a bit of mixed bag really (4-0, 1-3, 0-0 and 0-2) and that's probably why the market can't split the two outcomes - it's evens the pair. Switzerland don't good enough to score at all, they really have been poor recently, so effectively you're asking England to score at least three themselves. Personally, I'd rather be backing England 3-0 and any unquoted in the correct score market.
First Goal Odds
We've seen England have a habit of striking early in matches and it's worth taking a leap of faith that they can do so again. 0-10 minutes is available at 5.0 and that's where our money should go. Of course if it were the visitors who struck within the first ten minutes we'd still be paid; unlikely but worth remembering.
First Goalscorer
It's been a frustrating year for Frank Lampard in which he was out for most of it through injury and when he came back into the team, the Premier League title looked unlikely and defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League followed. His scoring record for England remains good though and he'll be on penalty duty again, just like he was against Wales in March. He's worth a small interest to open the scoring at around 8.07/1.