Switzerland v Ukraine: They may have done fairly well to date but it won't stop these two being viewed as a rather soft ticket to the semi-finals by whoever comes out on top between Italy and Australia tomorrow afternoon.
The feeling would be that either will have exceeded their own expectations by reaching the last eight and may simply start to run out of steam while their various limitations would almost certainly make them unable to cope in the face of a strong performance, particularly by Marcello Lippi's side.
Both will still fancy their chances in this evening's game, though, after strong group-stage performances. The Swiss became the first team since Argentina in 1998 to get through their opening three games without conceding a goal and confidence will be high after Friday's 2-0 defeat of South Korea, a match that extended their unbeaten run to seven games this season.
Kobi Kuhn, however, has been hit by the loss of Philippe Senderos who first suffered a facial injury in their last group match and then dislocated his shoulder. The Arsenal defender was not playing especially well in the game but he had scored his side's opening goal and the big match experience he has gained at club level over the past couple of years may be missed. Johann Djourou, a 19-year-old who is also at Arsenal where he sees good deal less first-team action, replaced the 21-year-old on Friday night and is now set to start in his place.
The task of containing Andriy Shevchenko will fall at least as much on the shoulders of the striker's team-mate at Milan last season, Johann Vogel, with the midfielder expected to limit Ukraine's ability to get the ball forward by providing protection to the central defence.
At his best it is a role he performs very well and he may have to be at or close to that against a team that has bounced back with surprising confidence from their 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Spain.
Shevchenko has looked sharper with each passing game while the side's slightly reorganised defence has had a chance to settle itself since being torn apart by David Villa, Fernando Torres and Luis Garcia a couple of weeks back.
The Swiss will use just one striker against them, Alexnder Frei, and his success rate at converting chances into goals is far from impressive. With Daniel Gygax still out Kuhn may well stick with the midfield that started against the Koreans which would mean another start for Hakan Yakin. It is from this line of three, sometimes four, behind Frei that they will hope to pose their real threat.
Though his side are debutants at this tournament, the occasion will certainly not phase Oleh Blokhin, the long-serving former striker of the then USSR who scored 42 goals in 112 internationals and won the inaugural European footballer of the year award back in 1975.
Blokhin was scathing of his team's performance after the Spain game when it appeared his side might be heading for a first round exit. Now, with the pressure gone, he is likely to relish what he will see as a winnable game, even without suspended defenders, Vyacheslav Sviderski and Andri Rusol.
Probable line-ups:
Switzerland (4-1-4-1) Zuberbuehler; P Degen, Djourou, Mueller, Magnin; Vogell; Barnetta Yakin, Cabanas, Wicky; Frei
Ukraine (3-5-2) Shovkovsky; Yezersky, Vashchyuk, Nesmachny; Gusev, Tymoshchyuk, Shelayev, Kalinichenko, Rebrov; Shevchenko, Voronin
