DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Switzerland is on the verge of making history at Euro 2024, but a few months ago it was a team under severe pressure.
A dinner and some “super” red wine in Duesseldorf — where Switzerland plays England on Saturday — helped captain Granit Xhaka and coach Murat Yakin turn things around.
The Swiss team eliminated defending champion Italy last week and is a step away from the semifinals, which would be its best-ever result at any tournament.
Just over four months ago, however, things were very different. Switzerland had won just one of its previous seven games, and that was against tiny Andorra. During that time, Xhaka had publicly criticized the team's training sessions — and by implication Yakin — and likened the team's performance to a kick-about “in the park.”
In February, Yakin came to visit Xhaka for dinner in Duesseldorf, just up the road from where Xhaka was playing for the then-undefeated Bayer Leverkusen.
What exactly they talked about remains a secret — and so does the menu — but both men have said the dinner was an important moment in the bond between coach and captain. It may have helped that Xhaka scored his first goal for Leverkusen the next day.
“We players are happy that we have a coach who is open to hearing the players’ opinions and there have never been problems. We are men enough to talk about it,” Xhaka said last month.
“Good food, super wine and I scored the next day ... I think we are both very ambitious. We both just want success for ourselves, for the team. And that is what counts. Everything else is history.”
Switzerland is unbeaten in eight games since then and a win against England would surpass its two previous quarterfinal appearances at major tournaments, at Euro 2020 and all the way back at the 1954 World Cup on home soil.
Yakin’s contract expires at the end of the tournament and he has so far chosen not to extend it.
In a team with relatively few star names, Xhaka brings experience at the top level with Arsenal in the English Premier League and elevated an underdog team to trophy-winners as Leverkusen won the German league and cup double. He's played for some of the top coaches in Europe — Arsene Wenger, Mikel Arteta, now Xabi Alonso — and is working toward his own coaching qualifications.
All of that makes Xhaka a valuable asset off the field as well as on it — especially if he's on the same wavelength as his coach. If Switzerland is to become a surprise title challenger at Euro 2024, it will need a win over England in the city where Xhaka and Yakin bonded over dinner.
“We talked a lot and we weren’t only drinking water. I think he scored his first goal the next day. He invited me again and said: ‘Muri, come back, because it can keep going in this rhythm,'" Yakin told Swiss TV in March.
"Then he wanted to know which red wine we’d been drinking that evening. I think that shows that we have a good relationship and that it’s not something we’re putting on.”
AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024
Switzerland's Granit Xhaka, right, fight for the ball with Germany's Ilkay Gundogan during a Group A match between Switzerland and Germany at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Switzerland's head coach Murat Yakin walks with a soccer ball on field during training at the "Stadion auf der Waldau" in Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday, July 3, 2024.(Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)
Switzerland's head coach Murat Yakin holds a ball ahead of Switzerland's Granit Xhaka prior a Group A match between Switzerland and Germany at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden 's campaign provided lists of approved questions to two radio hosts who did the first interviews with him after his faltering debate performance, both hosts said on Saturday.
Biden's Thursday appearances on Black radio shows in the critical states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were his first chances to show he could answer questions and discuss his record after a debate in which the 81-year-old repeatedly struggled to complete sentences and press his case against Republican Donald Trump.
Radio host Earl Ingram said Saturday that Biden aides reached out to him directly for his interview that aired Thursday and sent him a list of four questions in advance, about which there was no negotiation.
“They gave me the exact questions to ask,” Ingram, whose “The Earl Ingram Show” is broadcast statewide across 20 Wisconsin outlets, told The Associated Press. “There was no back and forth.”
But moving forward from the pair of radio interviews, the Biden campaign plans to refrain from offering suggested questions to hosts, according to a person familiar with the candidate's interview booking process but not permitted to speak publicly about its operations.
But while the interviews were meant as part of an effort to restore faith in Biden’s ability not just to govern over the next four years but to successfully campaign, the revelation instead created questions about whether Biden was capable of performing in ad-hoc, unscripted moments following his disastrous debate performance.
Appearing with Ingram earlier on CNN, Andrea Lawful-Sanders — host of “The Source” on WURD in Philadelphia — said that she had received a list of eight questions, from which she approved four.
The Biden campaign noted that it is common practice to suggest questions and said it did not make acceptance of the questions a prerequisite for the interviews themselves.
Lauren Hitt, spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said it is “not at all an uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer,” adding that the questions sent to both Ingram and Lawful-Sanders “were relevant to news of the day,” including Biden’s debate performance and “what he’d delivered for Black Americans.”
She also pointed to a Virginia TV station saying Trump’s campaign called off an interview after the debate after the station's reporter refused to agree to conditions on his questions. The Trump campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on its interview practices or if such appearances had been canceled over subject matter.
Biden argued on Ingram's show that much more than his own political future was in jeopardy, saying: “The stakes are really high. I know you know this. For democracy, for freedom ... our economy, they’re all on the line.”
Ingram asked four questions in his 18-minute interview. He asked if Biden could “speak to to some accomplishments that we may or may not be familiar with about your record, especially here in Wisconsin,” what was at stake for Black voters in the election, what Biden would say to people who believe their vote doesn't matter, and if he could address his debate performance and a remark Trump made during the debate about people crossing the border and taking what he called “Black jobs.”
“I didn’t have a good debate. That’s 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years," Biden said in answering the last question before speaking for several minutes about Trump, the economy and veterans' issues.
Since the interview with Biden, Ingram said all six phone lines for his weekday broadcast have been jammed with callers seeking to weigh in on whether Biden should quit the race, estimating that more than two-thirds want Biden to continue.
When asked about the set list of questions, Ingram — who has been in radio for 15 years and said he doesn't consider himself a journalist — said that the notion of receiving a set list of questions for a guest gave him pause, but also presented a perhaps once-in-a-career opportunity.
“I probably would never have accepted, it but this was an opportunity to talk to the president of the United States,” he said.
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
President Joe Biden arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One to depart at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., following a campaign visit, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden speaks to reporters on the tarmac before departing at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., following a campaign visit, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
