On This Day at the World Cup – June 15: Italian Joy and Swiss End Hoodoo

Italy fans still awake in the early hours of June 15 2014 will have celebrated wildly, unaware that the victory over England would be the last time their team won a World Cup match for who knows how long.

That game actually kicked off in the evening of June 14 in South America and was settled by Claudio Marchisio and Mario Balotelli scoring either side of a Daniel Sturridge effort.

Hours after the Azzurri triumph, Switzerland cheers would have been heard across the border in Italy when they beat Ecuador in their opening game in Brazil.

The Swiss had suffered against South American opposition in the World Cup and had a five-game winless record stretching back to 1950.

It did not look great for them when Enner Valencia opened the scoring for Ecuador but Admir Mehmedi equalised soon after coming on at half-time and his fellow substitute Haris Seferovic won it with just seconds left to play.

Juventus defender Stephan Lichtsteiner was in the Swiss line-up, taking another step on the way to his 108 caps. The rampaging right-back spent 10 years in Italy – three seasons with Lazio and seven with The Old Lady – and was the first man to score at the shiny new Juventus Stadium in 2011.

Destination Calcio caught up with Lichtsteiner last season at a Juve fan event, where he told us about his initial culture shock after moving south. “People (in Italy) speak about football from Monday to Monday, from morning to evening. But I liked that passion,” he said.

He also explained what happened on the day he realised the true genius of Andrea Pirlo, and how Champions League final defeats, especially 2015, still hurt now.