MANAUS Brazil (Reuters) – A rampant Switzerland reached the World Cup knockout stage and will locks horns with Argentina in the last 16 after a superb Xherdan Shaqiri hat-trick gave them a 3-0 win over Honduras on Wednesday.
The result in no way flattered the resilient Swiss, who bounced back from their 5-2 drubbing by France to finish behind them in Group E while third-placed Ecuador and Honduras were eliminated.
It was a memorable match for Kosovo-born forward Shaqiri, who scored the 50th hat-trick in World Cup history and the second of this tournament after Germany’s Thomas Mueller netted three against Portugal.
