SWISS coach Vladimir Petkovic was not impressed when two of his players celebrated their goals with political gestures insisting that they should never mix with football.

GRANIT Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri scored a goal in Switzerland’s 2-1 win at the World Cup against Serbia, celebrating both by representing a nationalist symbol of their ethnic Albanian heritage.

In the first come-from-back win of the tournament, Xhaka scored the 1-1 with a powerful shot from an overcrowded penalty in the 52nd minute.

Shaqiri added the others in added time after running past the Serbian defense. They both put their open hands together, their thumbs crossed and their fingers outstretched to create what looks like the double-headed eagle on the Albanian national flag.

The thumbs represent the heads of the two eagles, while the fingers look like feathers.

The gesture is likely to spark tension between Serb nationalists and ethnic Albanians.

Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, the former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and relations between the two countries remain tense.

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Xhaka’s parents are originally from Kosovo and are of Albanian descent.

Aleksandar Mitrovic headed for Serbia in the fifth minute.

Although the win puts Switzerland in pole position to get out of a difficult group with five-time winners Brazil, Petkovic was unfazed by the joy of his players.

“You should never mix politics and football, it’s good to be a fan and to show respect,” he told reporters after the game.

“It is clear that emotions are surfacing. I think that on and off the pitch we have to move away from politics in football and should focus on this sport that connects people. ”

Shaqiri was relentlessly whistled by Serbian fans during a high-profile match, but the Stoke City striker had the final laugh with his final winning goal.

“In football you always have emotions and you can see what I’ve done and it’s just emotions,” he said of his controversial celebration.

“I’m very happy with the goal, that’s all.”

Together with Bologna’s Blerim Dzemaili, who was born in neighboring Macedonia, Albanian-speaking players made up more than a third of the starting XI against Brazil.

The children of immigrants to Switzerland did not comment before the game against Serbia, which ended 2-1 in their favor.

Before the game, relatives of the players made no secret of the symbolic meaning of the game as seen from the Kosovar capital Pristina.

For Valon Behrami’s uncle Qaush, his nephew will have “special motivation to win” because his parents suffered from the Serbian province of Kosovo.

“They both lost their jobs and their father was persecuted,” said Qaush Behrami.

Xhaka said the father of his cousin Granit was imprisoned during the regime of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and the “family emigrated after his release”.

Like dozens of thousands of others, the families of Behrami, Xhaka and Shaqiri fled to Switzerland during the 1998-1999 war between the Kosovar-Albanian pro-independence guerrillas and Serbian armed forces.

There are no official figures, but an estimated 200,000 Kosovar Albanians live in Switzerland, a remarkable number compared to the 1.8 million inhabitants of Kosovo.

Together with the community living in Germany, they represent one of the main sources of income for Kosovo and return around 175 million francs (152 million euros, 176 million dollars) annually.

This emigration goes back to the time before the war in Kosovo.

Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj also lived in Switzerland and worked as a bouncer and karate teacher before returning to Kosovo and becoming one of the pro-independence guerrilla leaders.

The last conflict that accompanied the collapse of Yugoslavia claimed around 13,500 lives. More than 10,000 of the victims were Kosovar Albanians.

The war ended when the NATO bombing raids forced Milosevic to withdraw his troops. Less than a decade later, Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. Belgrade still refuses to recognize the declaration and is supported by its traditional ally Russia.

Belgrade is also making great efforts to prevent Kosovar teams from participating in international sporting events, albeit with decreasing success.

Kosovo was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 2014 and two years later it was accepted into the European football association UEFA and the global association FIFA.

But in May, Serbia prevented the Kosovar karate squad from entering the European Championship in Novi Sad.

No wonder that Kosovo is cheering Switzerland on.

“The whole of Kosovo will be in front of the television screens and cheer for the victory against Serbia,” the 46-year-old teacher Daut Maloku told AFP.

“When Switzerland plays, it’s the same as in Kosovo,” assured Qahil Halili.

“Switzerland is the third squad we have after Kosovo and Albania,” said Halili, a community worker from Zhegra, where Shaqiri was born.

A hamlet in the east of Kosovo is called “Little Switzerland” because 450 families have relatives there.

“The fans here will enjoy a Swiss victory more than the Swiss themselves,” said sports journalist Shkumbin Sekiraqa.

Extremely heavy, hard, strenuous, strange and important match played Serbia in Baku against Azerbaijan.

In the first round against Portugal, the opponent proved that he is a tough nut to crack on a tooth and be left without a point.

It was known that Serbia was waiting for a new “mining”, a chess fight and countless duels with an opponent who would primarily defend himself as he knew how, to wait for 90 long minutes to prove on the field that he was better and scored three important points.

Azerbaijan has traditionally tormented, annoyed us and made us wonder if we are worthy of the top of European and world football at all.

And it went well in that challenge. In the early phase of the match, Tadić found Mitrović in his own way, and he so routinely and simply tightened the ball and sent it behind the goalkeeper of the home team.

It seemed as if Dragan Stojković’s chosen ones were fully aware of the opponent’s limit and the formula by which such an opponent is defeated.

Until the goal, and then shortly after that, Serbia played as it should and had the end of the game in its legs.

Certainly in handing over the ball, building from the back line, simple but meaningful passes to send the ball to the creators, and they then with one or two quality moves, threw the opponent’s defense out of the comfort zone, gained an advantage and then used that advantage at the end of the action.

However, for who knows how many times and for who knows what reason, Serbia started with mistakes and huge oscillations in the game.

Azerbaijan based its game on defending their goal, and when they received it, they had to get out of the pattern and start experimenting and doing things from the backup plan, far from being capable of such a thing.

Instead of using that to make an advantage, create more chances, score at least one more goal and be a tailor of its destiny, Serbia allowed the opposite scenario.

Although she had the ball more in her legs and was more dangerous for the rival’s goal, our selection started to make mistakes in basic things, losing the ball, but also self-confidence.

As time passed, and especially after the goal, a huge dose of pressure and nervousness was noticed, which was reflected in insecurity in the legs and head, so bad things could be suggested.

And when it comes to the goal conceded, it is amazing that the “eagles” directly helped the opponent with every goal conceded in this qualifying cycle.

It is known that the teams led by Dragan Stojković have always been at least a little fussy in defense, but that should not be the case in the national team, which is rich in very capable and talented players in those positions, so the “eagles” will have to work on defensive and concentration in the same.

However, national football is very specific and differs greatly from club football, so even the best and highest quality national teams often do not play masterful, fluid and wonderful football to watch, and they always justify the roles of favorites.

Far from Serbia looking and playing badly, or achieving a bad result, but unlike the best and highest quality ones, Serbia has no room for mistakes, since it has made them in the past many years.

The best scorer in the history of this country has grown old to the point that he would start an avalanche and a burden that our national team members would bring out in pure doubt.

Mitrovic has shown for the umpteenth time that football can look like the most beautiful and simplest game in the world. He scored the first goal with his right foot with two contacts, the second with his left with one and thus sealed three points against Azerbaijan.

The huge contribution of Sergej Milinković Savić, who was most likely the best player on the field after “Mitrogol”, must also be emphasized.

During the entire match, SMS proved in the best way how important the “processing” of the ball is for modern football, along with the timing and correctness of decision-making, and largely justified the millions who stand next to his name on the football market.

And Mitrovic does what he knows and knows best. He shakes the nets in the national team jersey and does not intend to stop.

The fifth goal in three qualifying matches and the 31st in the last 32 matches in the national team are really unreal statistics and it is modest to say that Mitrović carries the entire national team on his back and that he deserves the most for the big seven points in three matches.

Considering that this is done by the player who found himself under the biggest blow of criticism after the game and the missed penalty against Ireland in the Euro qualifiers, as well as the extremely bad minutes and club form, that gives a special charm and magnitude to Mitrovic’s success.

Serbia came to the second victory, and in three games in the qualifications for the World Cup, it does not know about the defeat.

Dragan Stojković Pixie does not have a magic wand, so we still do not need to google how much the ticket and accommodation for Qatar cost and who will be our opponent in the group stage at the WC.

However, what is inevitable – changes are noticeable in Serbia, a couple of games with a favorable result are tied, and all that is enough for self-confidence to grow, the atmosphere to boil and to build a team that finally acts as a team, not a group of individuals.