Granit Xhaka, the former Arsenal captain and now Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, saw his first red card in nearly three years during Switzerland‘s 0-2 loss to Denmark in the UEFA Nations League.
The match, held in Copenhagen, turned chaotic in the second half as two Swiss players were sent off, including Xhaka, who ended his 966-day streak without a dismissal.
Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka (4th) is shown a red card by the referee during the UEFA Nations League football match League A, Group A4, Day 1, Denmark v Switzerland in the Parken stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 5, 2024. (Photo by MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
The drama started to unfold when Switzerland’s Nico Elvedi was controversially sent off in the 52nd minute minute for foul on Kasper Dolberg.
Initially handed a yellow card by German referee Daniel Siebert, the decision was upgraded to a red after a VAR review.
This infuriated Xhaka and the rest of the Swiss squad, as they believed Dolberg had hooked onto Elvedi before the foul, making the dismissal unfair. Xhaka didn’t mince words in his post-match criticism.
“This is a huge scandal for me,” Xhaka fumed, referring to Elvedi’s red card. “To go out and watch only part of the action and not the whole thing – I’ve never seen anything like it before. You need to see the full picture, not just a piece.”
With Switzerland down to 10 men, Denmark took control of the match, and tensions on the pitch quickly escalated.
After 82 minutes, Patrick Dorgu scored Denmark’s opener while Swiss forward Breel Embolo lay injured on the ground, sparking more outrage from Xhaka and his teammates.
They believed Denmark had shown a lack of sportsmanship by continuing play instead of putting the ball out, as Switzerland had earlier in the match when a Danish player was injured.
Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka walks out of the pitch after getting shown a red card during the UEFA Nations League football match League A, Group A4, Day 1, Denmark v Switzerland in the Parken stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 5, 2024. (Photo by MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
“In football, the word ‘respect’ is capitalised,” Xhaka said. “What the Danish players have done has nothing to do with respect. The Danes saw that Breel was lying on the ground, they just played on and scored. That’s how the 1-0 happened, and the rest is history.”
Just five minutes after Denmark took the lead, Xhaka’s emotions got the better of him.
In the 87th minute, the Swiss captain fouled former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg with a late but not particularly dangerous challenge.
However, having already been shown a yellow card for dissent four minutes earlier, the foul resulted in a second yellow for Xhaka, leading to his dismissal.
Reflecting on the moment after the game, Xhaka admitted, “It happened. That it must not happen, I know that too. I’ve become calmer in recent years, but I am a person who is very emotional, especially when things are going wrong.”
Despite his own red card, Xhaka’s frustration remained focused on the earlier decision to send off Elvedi and did not want to hear the referee’s explanation. “He saw right away that we didn’t want to hear from him at all,” Xhaka said.
Denmark added to Switzerland’s misery by scoring a second goal in stoppage time, with Højbjerg finding the net to seal a 2-0 win. Switzerland, reduced to nine men after Xhaka’s sending off, had no chance of mounting a comeback in the final moments of the match.
Xhaka later apologised to his teammates on social media, acknowledging the impact of his dismissal on the result.
The red card marks the 16th dismissal of Xhaka’s professional career, spanning 735 matches at both club and international levels. Although he was booked 76 times as an Arsenal player, all five of his reds during his time in England were direct. He never once picked up a two-yellow red.
While the midfielder has made strides in curbing his disciplinary issues, the events in Copenhagen show that his passion can still occasionally lead to lapses in judgment.
His suspension means he will miss Switzerland’s next Nations League fixture against Spain, leaving his team to recover from a frustrating night in Denmark.
