Switzerland, after their humbling at the hands of France, will look to bounce back with a victory over Honduras in Manaus and with it also possible qualification into the round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup 2014.
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Group E is France's to lose after their comprehensive wins over Honduras and Switzerland, with a point on Wednesday against Ecuador guaranteeing them top spot. France are on six points after two matches, while Ecuador and Switzerland have three points each, with the South Americans holding the advantage on goal difference.
However, Ecuador do have to lay the formidable France, and Switzerland will be confident of beating Honduras, who are yet to pick up a single point in this World Cup, but still hold the slightest of chances of progressing into the second round.
While a draw, or even a narrow loss, with Ecuador being thumped by France, could see them through to the knockout rounds, Switzerland coach Otmar Hitzfeld, who could very well be coaching in his final game of a stellar career, insisted his team would not take the field against Honduras with a draw in mind.
"We're not just playing defence and this is why we don't play for a draw," he said. "That is definitely not our mindset. I'm fully concentrated. We want to reach the round of 16. I am sure we will continue in this World Cup."
Switzerland, who will be without defender Steve Von Bergen for the rest of the tournament, will still be hurting from the 5-2 thrashing handed out by France in their last match, but the European side will take heart from the fact that they managed to pull back two goals in the end. If they make the same mistakes that they made against France, though, the no.6 ranked side in the world could be in for an early flight back home.
"We had good moments against France but we made some mistakes," Hitzfeld added. We can't misplace our passes ... we allowed France to beat us. "We are together and united so I am very optimistic about [the game against Honduras]."
The Hondurans, who suffered 3-0 and 2-1 defeats to France and Ecuador respectively, have no choice but to go out and play attacking football, as they not only need to beat Switzerland, and also hope Ecuador lose to France, but also beat then by a big margin in order to make up that goal difference.
"We can't win 1-0, it has to be a 3-0, so of course we will be more aggressive. It will have to be different from the game we played against France and Ecuador," Honduras coach Luis Suarez said. "But it's one thing to say that and another thing to do it on the pitch ... so yes we will be aggressive, but we have to defend."
Honduras do have a big advantage going into the game against Switzerland in Manaus, with temperatures in the Amazonian jungle expected to hover around the 30 degrees Celsius mark, something that the Swiss will not be too used to.
"Well comparatively speaking, yes it would be an advantage, because we are especially used to the high humidity," Suarez said when asked about the weather conditions. "With or without the ball at our feet we will try to tire out the Swiss ... but the idea is not to win by tiring them out. We want to win with good football."
Expected lineups: Honduras: Valladares; Beckeles, Bernardez, Figueroa, Izaguirre; Claros, Garrido, Palacios, Espinoza; Bengtson, Costly.
Switzerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Djourou, Schar, Rodriguez; Behrami, Inler; Shaqiri, Xhaka, Mehmedi; Drmic.
Prediction: 2-0 to Switzerland
