By Philip O'Connor
VANCOUVER, July 1 (Reuters) - Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic dismissed suggestions that his familiarity with the Switzerland players will make any difference when the two sides meet in the World Cup last 32 on Thursday.
The 62-year-old Bosnian-born coach has a long history in Swiss football, playing for and coaching a variety of teams before taking charge of the Switzerland senior men's team between 2014 and 2021, but he doesn't expect that to be any help when Thursday's match kicks
off.
"The world of football has become universal, everyone knows each other. There are no real secrets left in the game. I don't think it's a huge advantage to know someone or someone else," Petkovic told a press conference.
"Just as I know the players, the players know me. And it's a huge pleasure to come up against them, it will be lovely to meet and greet them. But after that, the players will go out there on the pitch. And I'm certainly expecting a tough game. And in order to win the match, we need to give 120% against a very decent Switzerland side."
Algeria scraped through to the last 32, losing their opener 3-0 to Argentina before beating Jordan and drawing 3-3 with Austria in their final game, and Petkovic gave his usual blunt assessment of his side ahead of their knockout game.
"We have conceded too many goals - of our seven goals we conceded, five of them have come from outside the penalty area. That also comes down to the quality of the opposition players, as we saw in our opening match," he said.
"The very positive thing is that we've scored five goals. We made it through to the knockout stage. This is only the second group of Algerian players that have made it through to the knockout stage in a World Cup.
"We need to take that as a positive and we need to keep improving as we have done game after game. And we need to be at the peak of our powers against an excellent Switzerland side, not only for 90 minutes, perhaps even beyond."
The Algeria boss, who holds Swiss citizenship and whose family lives there, said there would be little time for sentimentality when he faces Switzerland coach Murat Yakin, a man he has crossed swords with several times in his career.
"It's not Petkovic and against Yakin; it's Algeria against Switzerland," he said.
(Reporting by Philip O'ConnorEditing by Christian Radnedge)
