A hat-trick from Xherdan Shaqiri helped Switzerland book their place in the last sixteen of the 2014 World Cup with a comfortable 3-0 win over Honduras in their final Group E fixture at the Arena Amazonia in Manaus.
A dominant display from the Swiss side saw Shaqiri score twice in the first half before sealing the game by completing his hat-trick towards the latter stages of the match.
After threatening to score in the second minute of the game, Switzerland opened the scoring four minutes later when Shaqiri was allowed some space on the edge of the box. The Bayern Munich midfielder collected the ball from the right side of the box before firing an excellent long range effort past Noel Valladares.
The Central American side had an immediate opportunity to level scores when Switzerland failed to clear a corner and the ball fell to Brayan Beckeles. But the defender was unable to keep his cool as he sliced his effort wide of the post.
Honduras were made to pay for that miss as Shaqiri grabbed his second goal of the match at the half hour mark. Shaqiri, after collecting a pass from Josip Drmic, raced ahead of the Honduran defence before finding the net with a calm finish.
The Swiss nearly tripled their lead in the dying minutes of the first half when Shaqiri slipped a brilliant through ball to Drmic. However, an alert Valladares quickly came off his line and collected the ball before the forward could take a shot.
The second half began with Honduras looking much better as they started launching a series of attacks on the Swiss defence through Jerry Bengston.
While the forward's attempts to steer the ball with his head in the early minutes of the second half ended in failure, his second effort, a few moments later, had to be cleared off the line by Ricardo Rodriguez.
Honduras began appealing for a penalty at the hour mark after Johan Djourou brought down Jerry Palacios inside the box. However, the referee waved away the protests.
Shaqiri finally sealed Honduras' fate by grabbing his hat-trick in the 71st minute. A long ball from the midfield found Drmic and the forward, after dribbling his way past Victor Bernardez, laid the ball for Shaqiri, who eased it past Valladares.
Check out the full highlights of the match below:
