After the excellent Lucy Ward had drummed up 427 synonyms for toothless on co-commentary to describe Switzerland’s performance in the first 70 minutes of this grind against Bosnia and Herzegovina, a 20-year-old described as ‘the next Bundesliga star’ or maybe the next, next one after Yan Diomande, came on to provide stunning bite following innumerable barks from Murat Yakin’s side.
Johan Manzambi got seven goals and seven assists from midfield for Freiburg in all competitions this (or is it now last?) season, helping them to seventh in the Bundesliga and to the Europa League final, where they were soundly beaten by Aston Villa.
Granit Xhaka wasn’t at all impressed with his 25-minute cameo in the 1-1 draw with Qatar on Saturday, suggesting he was trying to do too much rather than sticking to the game plan.
“When the coach brings in a player and that player just tries to do everything, and you no longer have the discipline in certain positions, then it gets difficult,” the Swiss captain said.
“In the end, you just have to do what the coach asks and not feel like you have to be the showman and do everything on your own.”
It wasn’t at all evident that Xhaka’s message hit home as Manzambi took the weight of a nation on his shoulders to all-but secure Switzerland’s place in the knockout stages of the World Cup with a quite brilliant late show to put Bosnia and Herzegovina to the sword.
Three minutes after coming on, after some beautiful work in the build-up, he smashed a volley past Nikola Vasilj to give Switzerland the lead.
He ran in behind the Bosnia defence eight minutes later before squaring the ball for Breel Embolo, who fed fellow substitute Ruben Vargas to put them 2-0 up.
And after 19 minutes on the pitch, Manzambi had a second goal, tapping in Vargas’ cross following a delightful no-look pass from Xhaka.
The Bosnia fans are set to boo the hydration breaks even more vehemently in their final group game against Qatar next Wednesday as the momentum shifted dramatically – as has proven to be the case on several occasions at this World Cup – following the second-half break in play.
But the introduction of Manzambi – and to a lesser extent, Vargas – was the far more significant factor in the change of impetus.
While Thomas Tuchel will likely keep his finishers as finishers after they killed the game against Croatia on Wednesday, Yakin surely has little option but to rip up his blueprint to find a spot in his team for Manzambi, while Freiburg rub their hands together at the extra few million euros they can add to their asking price on the back of this outstanding display on the world’s biggest stage.
Our friends at TEAMtalk revealed in March that Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea had converged on Freiburg’s most valuable asset, while Arsenal have ‘held talks’ over a move for Manzambi after identifying him as a player with ‘elite’ potential.
Manzambi’s display stood in stark contrast to that of Martin Odegaard for Norway in their 4-1 win over Iraq. And amid reports claiming Arsenal would be open to offers for their captain following a trying season, a chunk of that sale could be put to far worse use than in bringing the young Switzerland star to the Emirates this summer.
Unfortunately for admirers Andrea Berta and Mikel Arteta, that chunk will already be bigger than his €50m [£43.4m] Transfermarkt valuation after this glorious cameo against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and only looks set to increase further as the World Cup continues.
