Romania 1 Switzerland 1

It is difficult sometimes to remember quite how it seemed a few years ago that Switzerland might be one of international football’s next big things. Here they again looked rather ordinary despite dominating for the most part and becoming the first side in the competition to amass four points, the sort of tally that really should ensure a place in the last 16.

With Germany or Poland amongst the more likely opponents at that stage, however, it is difficult to see them hanging around much beyond that if they do not actually win this group and their coach Vladimir Petkovic was quick to acknowledge the missed opportunity.

“We tried to win the game,” he said, “and we created a lot of chances so we don’t have to be too anxious but we could have taken a very important step towards getting the first place in the group. Still, we can go now and try to beat the favourites (France).”

On the face of it, his side were certainly superior on this occasion to opponents who worked hard to take then hold a lead but were ultimately outplayed in more or less every department.

Still, Switzerland struggled to beat them and actually fell behind 18 minutes in from the penalty spot. At that stage, and for a while longer, they were finding it hard to cope with the pace of Romania’s heavily improvised attacking play and even after equalising they could not completely subdue opponents who will, as their coach confirmed, still fancy own chances of beating Albania to make the knockout stages too.

After the rather morale busting manner of their opening night defeat by the hosts, Romania picked up themselves well enough here but despite some strong spells, they were again second best overall and they rode their luck early on when Haris Seferovic passed up a couple of fairly glorious chances to put his side in front.

The 24 year-old, who only scored a couple of goals all season for Eintracht Frankfurt before making amends by getting the one that kept them up in the relegation play-offs, had a stinker on Saturday against Albania and pretty much picked up where he left off. Commentators inclined to a ‘glass half full’ view of the world might say he does just about everything right but score, but having been linked with some of the Premier League’s lesser lights in recent weeks his performances to date at this tournament should provide plenty of material for the showreels of his agent’s rivals, anxious to hijack any big bucks deal.

It was certainly no great surprise here that he made way after an hour for rising young Basel star Breel Embolo; soon to make the sort of move his team mate can only dream of. The 19 year-old, as it happens, didn’t do too much to enhance his reputation on this occasion but his arrival coincided with his side’s best spell with the Swiss midfield increasingly influential as the game wore on.

Their defence remains rather more of a concern , though, and the Swiss fell behind when Stephen Lichtsteiner conceded a somewhat soft penalty by hanging out of Alexandru Chipciu’s shirt directly in front of the Russian referee and Bogdan Stancu stepped up to convert his second penalty of the tournament.

They then set about their search for an equaliser by picking at the opposing defence with Admir Mehmedi and Arsenal new boy Granit Xhaka doing most to expose the cracks but the Romanians held firm from play and showed a slightly wild and wonderful abandon when piling forward themselves.

The pace of Chipciu down the left, in particular, proved a problem for the Swiss skipper and around the area they seemed, at times, to be able to conjure up chances out of near chaos with Cristian Sapunaru doing especially well to take down a high, angled free in a very crowded space before clipping the outside of the right hand post just short of the half hour.

As anyone from Ireland could have told them, they needed that second goal but it didn’t come and eventually Switzerland shook off their timidity inside the final third. With a little short of an hour played, Ricardo Rodriguez’s corner from the left was knocked down by Johan Djourou for Mehmedi who promptly planted the ball in the top right corner.

A better team would surely have pushed on and won. This one, did much to entertain over the closing stages but very little to intimidate prospective second round opponents.