Breel Embolo and Dan Ndoye on target as Switzerland end Algeria World Cup hopes

Switzerland progressed to the last 16 of the World Cup as they beat a below-par Algeria 2-0 in Vancouver.

Breel Embolo and Dan Ndoye were on target for Switzerland, who dominated throughout to set up a clash with Colombia or Ghana.

Ramiz Zerrouki had an early penalty appeal waved away for Algeria and that was as good as it got for the African side as Switzerland went ahead after 10 minutes.

Johan Manzambi burst down the left and picked out Embolo to leave the Rennes striker with a simple finish.

After a tepid first-half showing, Algeria made the worst possible start after the break as their defence failed to deal with Embolo’s cross and Nottingham Forest’s Ndoye gathered the ball on the edge of the area before firing past Luca Zidane.

Riyad Mahrez was denied by a last-ditch tackle but Algeria struggled to create a chance of note.

Instead, Switzerland should have had a third, Fabian Rieder somehow contriving to shoot straight at Zidane with the goal at his mercy after good work by Denis Zakaria.

Zidane denied Remo Freuler by keeping out his low 20-yard effort in stoppage time as Switzerland won a World Cup knockout game for the first time since 1938.

Embolo told fifa.com: “The most important thing is the victory. I spoke about being clinical. We suffered at the start of the game, but managed to score a superb team goal. I’m at the end of the team effort.

“They started strongly, but congratulations to our team for controlling the match and especially with how we came out at the start of the second half. Algeria is a strong team and we’re happy to win with a clean sheet too.”

Mahrez said: “Our aim was to go through and I think it was a game we could have won. But we conceded twice on mistakes and at this level, you can’t get away with it.”