The hat-trick hero. Photograph: Peter Klausner/EPA10.51pm BST
Full-time: Honduras 0-3 Switzerland
And that is that. Nothing more to report from here except that when Sepp came up on the big screen, he was greeted with thousands of boooooooooooooooos! And it is all over in the Ecuador game. That has ended 0-0 and so there is joy for Switzerland. (Ecuador are the first South American team to go out.) That's all from me. Thanks for all the emails, tweets and Prince opinions. Bye!
Updated at 10.54pm BST
10.50pm BST
90 + 2 mins Chavez whips a free-kick in from the left with speed. Switzerland clear it post-haste.
10.49pm BST
90 mins Beckeles crosses from the right. Benaglio looks to have it covered but Djourou intercepts it anyway and the ball goes out for a corner. Honduras play that short and it comes to Figueroa on the edge fo the box. He aims low and hard but Benaglio is up to the challenge. There are three more minutes to play.
10.46pm BST
87 mins Just saw a flash of Shaqiri's teeth. They are picture perfect, like something from a Hollywood movie.
10.44pm BST
85 mins Dzemaili comes and Shaqiri goes. The fans give him a standing ovation.
10.42pm BST
83 mins Of course, if Ecuador score ...
Ecuador support singing 'Si se puede'... "Yes, we can"
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) June 25, 2014
Updated at 10.44pm BST
10.40pm BST
80 mins Oh Honduras, it's just not your day is it? Chavez put in a great ball behind the Swiss defence and it finds the head of Bengtson. From inches out, he tries to give his side and their fans some hope. Either side of Benaglio and that is the case. Instead, Bengtson aims right at the keeper and he pulls off a decent reaction save to keep his sheets clean.
10.37pm BST
79 mins Z.S. has been back in touch with more about Prince's house. Says Z.S:
His house was big but actually fairly normal, apart from the large windmill and a huge gazebo. The grounds reminded me of a Disney forest - giant trees surrounded by perfectly mown grass. And in the center of the circular driveway was a flower garden with the Prince "symbol" done in yellow flowers surrounded by a sea of purple. In case you were wondering who owned the house, I assume. Or maybe pointing at it was an easier way for him to describe his new glyph name to others.
10.35pm BST
77 mins Both sides make a change. For Honduras, Boniek Garcia goes and Najar comes. For Switzerland, Lang replaces Xhaka.
10.33pm BST
75 mins A stat for all you funky stat fans out there.
Xherdan Shaqiri: Has scored Switzerland's first World Cup finals hat-trick since 1954 (Josef Hügi vs Austria) #sui
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 25, 2014
10.33pm BST
74 mins Off goes Drmic and on comes Seferovic.
10.31pm BST
Rodriguez lumped the ball long and over the top. Drmic, who had come short and ran into the space behind him, collected the ball on the edge of the area on the left. He stepped over the ball and left Bernardez looking foolish. Around that time, Shaqiri came steaming into the box and Drmic found him with a simple pass. From a few yards out, Shaqiri poked the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Updated at 10.32pm BST
10.29pm BST
GOAL!!! Honduras 0-3 Switzerland (Shaqiri)
Honk the hat-trick klaxon.
Shaqiri completes his hat-trick. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesPHOTO: Shaqiri (@XS_11official) scores the 50th hat-trick in#WorldCup history #HONSUI - http://t.co/vihqevL5Qapic.twitter.com/rYt6Sm2cxC
— FIFAWorldCup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 25, 2014
Updated at 10.56pm BST
10.27pm BST
69 mins Don't forget there is another game going on tonight. Barry Glendenning has the latest on that one. Honduras, nmeanwhile, have a corner. It lands in the hands of Benaglio.
10.26pm BST
66 mins Jerry P gets the first yellow card of the game for an industrial-strength challenge on Schär.
10.23pm BST
65 mins "Z.S. is having you on," reckons Andrew Kupfer. "Everyone knows that Prince favored Georgian gardens of pressed gravel." Say it ain't so Z.S, say it ain't so.
10.22pm BST
64 mins It's a real shame that the standard of refereeing has not matched the standard of football at this World Cup.
10.21pm BST
62 mins Honduras are furious and they have every right to be as they have just been denied a stone-waller of a penalty. Wilson P sends it long to Jerry P in the box. Inside the box, he controls the ball and is about to shoot before Djourou bundles him to the ground. It is as clear a penalty as you will ever see.
10.18pm BST
59 mins And now it is Shaqiri's turn to be set up inside the area. Mehmedi is the provider this time. From close range, Shaqiri shoots for home but Valladares is swift off his line and his shoulder gets in the way of the shot.
10.17pm BST
58 mins Drmic exhibits some nice movement and finds himself in some space inside the Honduran box. Shaqiri picks him out but his effort at the near post fails to trouble Valladares.
10.15pm BST
56 mins Inler picks the ball up inside the Honduras half. He looks up, transforms into Pirlo and chips a beautiful pass into the path of Mehmedi. Unfortunately for Switzerland that is were the fun ends as Mehmedi was ruled offside.
10.13pm BST
55 mins "Z.S's tale of mowing Prince's yard reminds me of the guy I met who used to mow Kim Thayil's (lead guitarist of Soundgarden) yard," says Daniel Stauss. "Which always struck me as an odd job, because I had assumed that Kim Thayil's house would be surrounded by a moat filled with lava or, at the very least, a desolate wasteland studded with those giant steel tank trap spikes. Rock stars, what are you gonna do?"
10.12pm BST
52 mins Honduras won't get any closer to scoring than this. They had held possession well before a delicate ball into the box split the Swiss defence and found the run of Bengtson. He rounded Benaglio and tapped the ball home but Rodriguez came to rescue for his goalkeeper and cleared the ball off the line.
Switzerland's Ricardo Rodriguez clears the ball off the line. Photograph: ANDRES STAPFF/REUTERSUpdated at 10.53pm BST
10.08pm BST
49 mins Jerry Palacios wins a throw wide on the left, neat the corner flag. It eventually comes back to him and he curls a dangerous ball across the face of the Swiss goal. Bengtson comes diving in at the back post and misses the ball by this much. If he had stayed on his feet he might have reached the ball and got his side back int he game.
Updated at 10.08pm BST
10.06pm BST
47 mins Chavez goes through the back of Lichtsteiner near the corner flag on the right. Shaqiri whips it the resulting free-kick and Honduras get it out. It only goes as far as Inler on the edge of the box. He screws his shot well wide.
10.04pm BST
46 mins "I used to play in a mess-around rock-covers-for-parties band type thing with some friends," confesses Matt Dony. "I managed to convince them to play a Purple Rain/Sad But True medley. Beauty and brutality. I'm still proud of it. And, if we're widening the criteria of top Prince work, I'll throw Gold in as one of the very best."
10.03pm BST
45 mins And we are back. There is one sub to tell you about. Chavez is on for Honduras and Espinoza does one.
9.59pm BST
Who would have thought?
HT #HON 0-2 #SUI http://t.co/ORWu30jOWT It was a fouly first half: HON doing most of theirs in attacking areaspic.twitter.com/TwYVfrUJiW
— Stats Zone (@StatsZone) June 25, 2014
9.47pm BST
Half-time: Honduras 0-2 Switzerland
And that is that for now. As it stands, Switzerland are going through. See you back here in a few moments.
9.46pm BST
45 mins Espinoza has done a shoulder-barge on Lichtsteiner, that almost had the Juve man in the row A and yet he manages, somehow, to get away without a yellow card. There are two more minutes until break time.
9.44pm BST
44 mins The spray is brilliant isn't it?
Spraying the field as dance. #HONvsSUIpic.twitter.com/buh7S4awJe
— KICKTV (@KICKTV) June 25, 2014
9.42pm BST
42 mins And now Benaglio is down. He crashed into Lichtsteiner's knee going up for a corner. Ouch. But he is a tough on and within minutes he is back on his feet and looks like he is going to be OK to continue.
9.40pm BST
40 mins Costa is down and out. He is limping off – from here it seems like he hurt his left hamstring – and will be replaced by Wilson Palacios' brother, Jerry Palacios. Costa looks very upset on the bench. Poor chap.
9.38pm BST
38 mins Finally! Someone emailing in with some sense. And that somebody is Z. S. Here is what Z. S has to say:
As someone who was 12-years-old and living in Minneapolis when Purple Rain came out (and who, as a teenager, worked for a lawn mowing company and occasionally mowed Prince's house, which had a large yellow and purple windmill in the back yard), I feel like it's important that you know that you are entirely correct about Purple Rain. But if you don't believe me, here's what Revolution drummer Bobby Z had to say about it:
"Purple Rain"is just one of those moments, as a band, that you live for. From the first moment of rehearsal, when I heard the strains of it on Prince's piano, to the last time we played it live at the Myth, just last May with him. He calls it medicine, and it is; it just really has something about it, the way it crescendos, the way it crashes, and the way the guitar solo takes you to a place where you just feel different about your life. No matter what, when you hear those opening chords of Purple Rain, you just stop time somehow, and just listen."
Saying a song other than "Purple Rain" is the best Prince song is like saying someone other than Messi is the best soccer player. Even if others have their moments, you just know.
9.36pm BST
35 mins Honduras look deflated now. It's hard to see a way back for them.
9.34pm BST
This one is not as spectacular as the first one but Switzerland will not give two or three of four hoots about that. Bernardez makes a horrible error in the Honduran half – failing to cut out a Inler pass – and that gives Drmic some time and some space, wide on the left. After a touch or two he plays in Shaqiri, whose has made an intelligent run. Shaqiri, though on goal, takes his time and waits for Valladares to make a move before calmly slotting the ball past the keeper into the lower right corner of the net.
Updated at 9.41pm BST
9.31pm BST
GOAL!!! Honduras 0-2 Switzerland (Shaqiri)
Two for him and two for Switzerland.
Shaqiri celebrates his second goal with team mate Josip Drmic. Photograph: ANDRES STAPFF/REUTERSUpdated at 9.46pm BST
9.30pm BST
30 mins "Ottmar Hitzfeld has something of Jack Nicholson's Joker's eyebrows, eyes and forehead so I think that we should pay tribute to him by mentioning Prince's musical score for the Tim Burton Batman film," emails Steven Hughes.
9.29pm BST
28 mins Djourou gives away a free-kick on the half-way line, just to the right of the centre circle. Honduras switch it long to the left. Garcia is the receiver and he tries to scamper towards the end line but an excellent challenge from Schär stops him in his tracks.
Updated at 9.29pm BST
9.26pm BST
26 mins Figueroa has just taken down Claros, his own player. He does like a tackle doesn't he?
Updated at 9.26pm BST
9.25pm BST
24 mins Switzerland, over the last few minutes, have decided to sit deep and allow Honduras to have the ball and do all the running. Given the temperature and humidity this seems to be a smart move. You saw how too much running in these type of conditions hurt Italy and England.
9.23pm BST
21 mins Honduras have their first corner of the game. Switzerland looked weak at set-pieces in their last few games and this one is no different. The corner is not well hit but Mehmedi – I think – still manages to scuff his clearance before Beckeles scuffs his shot on goal.
9.19pm BST
19 mins Rodriguez gives away a free-kick just inside his own half. This is a chance for Honduras to launch it long and try exert their muscle in the opposition box. Instead they play it short and lose possession almost instantly. The Swiss bench, meanwhile, are worried about Shaqiri. Think he is holding his wrist.
Updated at 9.20pm BST
9.18pm BST
17 mins "Let's Go Crazy was the best song from that album," matter-of-facts George Demas. "When Doves Cry is number 2. But none of them beats Raspberry Beret."
9.16pm BST
16 mins Shaqiri does a great first touch to take the ball past Figueroa. Figueroa ain't like that though and takes the Swiss man down. That results in a free-kick just outside the Honduran box. Xhaka takes it but the wall stands stong. The ball goes out for a corner. Espinoza clears it at the back post.
9.14pm BST
13 mins Honduras have recovered from that early blow and are startling to knock the ball about a bit. Just outside rhe Swiss box, though, it comes to an end after Behrami is taken down by Bengtson.
9.11pm BST
11 mins Honduras get their attack down the right. Boniek Garcia and Bengtson combine but the latter's return pass is overhit and Switzerland are given a goalkick.
Updated at 9.12pm BST
9.09pm BST
9 mins "Purple Rain isn't even the greatest song on that album, let alone ever written," reckons Matt Dony. "That would be either When Doves Cry or I Would Die 4 U. End of."
9.07pm BST
Oh this is something special all right. Very special. Shaqiri gets the ball wide on the right. He holds off Garcia and cuts inside and despite the pressure of some more Honduran defenders – who failed to get tight to him – and the fact that he is moving away from the goal, he curls the ball into the top left corner of the net. Valladares stretched but got nowhere near it.
Updated at 9.12pm BST
9.06pm BST
GOAL!!! Honduras 0-1 Switzerland (Shaqiri)
Lionel Messi eat your heart out.
Noel Valladares of Honduras is beaten by a peach of a shot by Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri. Photograph: ANDRES STAPFF/REUTERSUpdated at 9.15pm BST
9.05pm BST
5 mins The turf is cutting up already. Parts of it look like the face of a teenager blighted with pimples.
Updated at 9.08pm BST
9.04pm BST
4 mins And here is the first real opening in the game. Palacios loses possession just outside his box. Drmic capitalises on that and breaks down the left. He cuts a smart ball across the goal towards the feet of Shaqir. Valladares comes out to put him off and after a bit of penalty-area pinball, Honduras clear the danger.
The field is dug up as Switzerland's Stephan Lichtsteiner fights for the ball with Juan Carlos Garcia of Honduras. Photograph: SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERSUpdated at 9.13pm BST
9.02pm BST
2 mins "You can't be arguing that the greatest song of all time is a Prince song not written by Prince, can you?" asks Steven Forstneger. "Or is that whole thing about Wendy & Lisa giving him the jam tape in the movie just a narrative device? But just up and down that soundtrack, Darling Nikki and Take Me With You are superior. Not to mention the first minute of Let's Go Crazy." We'll all pretend that Steven didn't type that about Darling Nikki and Take Me With You, shall we? Kool and the gang.
9.00pm BST
1 min Here we go then. Switzerland are in red and playing right to left. Honduras are in white and doing the opposite. It is they who get us going. The humidity, incidentally, is at a whopping 88%.
Updated at 9.00pm BST
8.57pm BST
The teams are out on the turf. The mascots are waving to their proud parents, who are far too busy taking photos and/or videos to really see the actual event. Arms get wrapped around shoulders and lungs get wrapped around anthems. The handshakes are conducted in an orderly manner and we are almost at rumbling time. Excited much?
8.52pm BST
569- Carlo Costly's goal against #ECU is the only goal that#HON have scored in their last 569 minutes of #WorldCupaction. Scant
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 25, 2014
8.50pm BST
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Updated at 8.50pm BST
8.42pm BST
Purple rain, though. Think that we can all agree that it is the greatest song ever written, right? Right. Glad we had this conversation.
8.37pm BST
The last time around.8.33pm BST
All these fans in paint. Head to toe, arm to arm, nose and knee in paint. Paint, paint, paint. How long does that take to do? And why? Dear God, why?
Updated at 8.35pm BST
8.15pm BST
That Prince song you were promised.
7.59pm BST
Team news
Honduras: Valladares (c), Figueroa, Bernardez, J Garcia, W Palacios, Bengtson, Costly, Boniek Garcia, Espinoza, Claros, Beckeles. Subs: López, Escober, Montes, Izaguirre, J Palacios, M Martinez, Delgado, R Martinez, Najar, Garrido, Chavez.
Switzerland: Benaglio, Lichtsteiner, Inler (c), Xhaka, Behrami, Rodriguez, Mehmedi, Drmic, Djourou, Schär, Shaqiri. Subs: Sommer, Bürki, Ziegler, Senderos, Lang, Barnetta, Seferovic, Stocker, Dzemaili, Fernandes, Gavranovic, Von Bergen.
Referee: Néstor Pitana (#ARG)
Honduras vs Switzerland: Team Lineups #HONvsSUIpic.twitter.com/ZBNaI1s0Ha
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 25, 2014
Updated at 9.59pm BST
7.30pm BST
Good evening to you wherever you may be
Look at your phone. Look at the top right hand of your computer. Look at the calender on the wall made up of pictures of the daughter and the husband with the kids, smiling on the beach, picnicking in the forest, crying over spilled ice-cream. You know what date it is right? Of course you do. It's 25 June 2014, silly. Doesn't seem too significant at first, does it? But it is and it should be ringing bells like Sunday at twelve o'clock. Think about it for a minute there while the rest of us amuse ourselves with Chinese finger traps. Got it yet? Well? Seriously? Come on now. Ah here, this is embarrassing. Sure we'll just tell you. It's 30 years since Prince released Purple Rain; 18 years since Jay Z (or Jaÿ-Z as we was known then) released Reasonable Doubt; and it's four years since Honduras put a stop sign in front of Switzerland's hopes of qualifying for the last 16 in the World Cup.
Switzerland went into that game needing two goals. Just two. No more, no less. Honduras were/are/forever will be an obdurate team but Spain – who Switzerland had beaten in the first game – had managed to do it in the previous match so there was hope, sweet, cruel hope. From the get-go the Swiss tried harder than an east London hipster with a blue felt hat on his head, sailor tattoos on his arm, purple leggings on his legs and a Sega Game Gear on his neck. Tranquillo Barnetta curled one to the back stick but Eren Derdiyok's header went wide. Hakan Yakin did something similar for his fellow substitute Alexander Frei but he poked his close-range effort over the bar, before kicking the post, because, you know, it was the post's fault. Barnetta then set up Lichtsteiner whose blaster cleared the bar in Bloemfontein and landed somewhere in Lesotho. They needed two. They couldn't even get one.
Not to take anything away from Honduras and their performance that night. They had nothing to play for but they too tried harder than an east London ... yada, yada, yada. And they too were unlucky not to find the back of the net on more than one occasion. Edgar Álvarez put one in the box for for David Suazo but his header was directed the wrong side of the post. After that Álvarez himself forced Diego Benaglio in the one of the best one-handed saves this side of Guillermo Ochoa. Yeah, it really was that good. Take a gander with your very own peepers if you are the incredulous type. Honduras needed none. They got none. And Switzerland got no further than the group stages.
Fast forward to today and things are but a touch different. Like in South Africa, Honduras are bottom of the group, Switzerland are third and three points separate them as they enter the final game. Unlike in South Africa though, both of these teams can still qualify for the next round. If the Swiss were to emerge from this match with a point (or more) in their pocket and France do one on Ecuador (France only need a point to top the group), then second place is theirs. However, should Honduras bulge the net on more occasions than Switzerland and should France take down Ecuador by the requisite amount that allows Honduras' goal difference to improve beyond that of Switzerland's and Ecuador's, it is they who will be popping the Cristal in the post-match celebrations. Got it? Good.
"History repeats itself" opined Karl Marx but in his pre-match press conference Ottmar Hitzfeld was quick to contradict the great socialist thinker. "We will win this time, it is that simple," he thundered. "I am convinced that we have a lot more potential now in our offence. We have scored four goals in this World Cup already. So I am confident that we can score goals against Honduras, too." Four goals. True that. But they have also let in six, four of which came when France broke out the streamroller and treated them like tarmac. Hitzfeld probably won't be too worried about that this evening. Those goals shipped in that match were as many as they had conceded in their previous nine World Cup matches put together, plus with the exception of their solitary goal in this edition of the tournament, you would have to go back to 21 June 1982 to find the last time Honduras scored at this level. Honduras have also failed to score in their last 4 games against European teams at the World Cup.
One of the most impressive aspects about this Switzerland side is their steel-toed resolve to keep on giving it socks until the final whistle has been peeped upon. Their opening match group game was a perfect example of this. Admir Mehmedi had leveled proceedings, after Enner Valencia had given Ecuador the lead, but deep in injury time it looked like a draw would have to be settled for. Lesser sides would have been happy with that, relieved even – few sides come back from an opening-game defeat – but the Swiss ain't suckers like that. In the 93rd minute, they survived a late scare and rampaged their way up the pitch, with Haris Seferovic finishing off the swiftest of counterattacks. Even against France, when they were a full five down, they still did not give up. If they needed a late goal again this evening, you fancy them to show Hitzfeld that Marx had a point.
All signs point to Switzerland then. But even if Carlo Costly didn't sound too confident when asked about his side's chances – "we're still hopeful and we've got faith that everything will turn out well. That's what we're clinging on to" – you can be confident that they are going to fight hard for 90 minutes. They did so against England in their warm-up fixture and they did so against Ecuador. In the former fixture, they committed no less than 16 fouls. In the game against France, it was no less than 15.
But if you think they are going to sit back and just hack their way to a win you best check yourself. "We cannot win 1-0, it has to be 3-0, so we will be different than against France and Ecuador," pufffed their manager, Luis Fernando Suárez. "If you put it in a spreadsheet it is easy, but to put it into practice is difficult. We will be aggressive but we have to defend. We have to attack a lot, defend and have a three-goal difference, so we have to be very intelligent, very dedicated, have all our senses fully invested."
Two teams needing to win with a dash of revenge thrown in should ensure we have a fascinating game on our hands this evening. Stayed tuned for some Prince songs and team news. Both are on their way very soon.
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