By Philip O'Connor
VANCOUVER, July 1 (Reuters) - Switzerland will face a team that knows them well when they meet Algeria in their World Cup last 32 on Thursday, with the North Africans coached by Vladimir Petkovic - the man who guided the Swiss national team for seven years.
Petkovic joined Swiss club Chur 97 in 1987, going on to play for and manage a number of Swiss sides before taking the helm of the national team between 2014 and 2021, where he coached the likes of Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka
and striker Breel Embolo.
"I look different now than I did six years ago, there's a big difference," Embolo joked when asked what had changed since Petkovic left the Switzerland job.
"Both teams want to win, we want to write history. Petkovic, he really raised the bar with the Swiss team. And now we want to go even further. We have a new coach now. And it is always difficult as a player to compare coaches to each other.
"One thing that they have in common is that they both want to write history. If it's going to be an advantage, well, at the end of the day, it's still football."
The World Cup clash will not be the first time that current Swiss coach Murat Yakin has faced Petkovic, with the two pitted against each other when coaching in the Swiss league.
"Every time we met, it was very special. I was the coach of Thun and he was the coach of Young Boys, so it was the big brother against the small brother, it was always very positive," Yakin said.
"It was also a very tactical approach, and this is going to be the case also tomorrow. Of course, this was years ago and tomorrow is a very special match and a very special time we meet, at the end of the day, the players will decide who has the better tactical approach."
Yakin pushed back against the notion that Switzerland would be favourites to go through to the last 16.
"If we look at the knockout matches, we can't really talk about favourites in this tournament. There are even matches, and this is going to be the case tomorrow as well," he said.
"Algeria is a team that has individual qualities, they're technically very refined, they're very strong, and obviously, they'll try to press hard, but we also try to stick to the way we play football. This is going to be an open match. From the beginning, we'll try to set the tone, and win."
Thursday's game takes place at Vancouver's BC Place stadium.
(Reporting by Philip O'ConnorEditing by Toby Davis)
