Switzerland is the last country defeated by Scotland at a European Championship, in 1996.
Now, the Swiss are preventing the idea of going outside the group in a major final from being kept alive for the first time.
The three-point route to the round of 16 has suffered a powerful blow Germany accumulated goals in Munich, meaning a draw is the minimum required on Wednesday.
The Swiss are not Germany, but this is a team that knows how to reach the knockout stages. After all, they have achieved this in each of the last five tournaments.
While Scotland have been besieged by negativity during this one-in-10 run, Switzerland entered the competition after an unconvincing qualifying campaign in what was the easiest group.
After gaining maximum points in the first three games, the team stumbled in the rest, winning just once more, at home against small Andorra, finishing behind Romania and ahead of Israel.
They lost points to Belarus, drawing from two goals down in the final minutes, and twice to Kosovo, en route to their sixth European Championship. Late concessions of targets were a regular occurrence.
In the end they did just enough, but their first-half performance against Hungary on Saturday suggests they are capable of negotiating the group stage once again.
Captain Granit Xhaka pulled the strings and was deservedly voted man of the match as they won 3-1 and his role in the team is not very different from that of Toni Kroos for the Germans.
Many squad members arrive at this competition after having had excellent seasons at their clubs.
Goalkeeper Yann Sommer helped Internazionale win the Scudetto in Italy and Xhaka excelled in leading unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title.
Leonidas Stergiou was part of the Stuttgart team that achieved their best result in the German top flight since they last won the title in 2007.
Lewis Ferguson’s teammates Remo Freuler, Michel Aebischer and Dan Ndoye, alongside the injured Scottish midfielder, helped guide Bologna into next season’s new Champions League and defender Manuel Akanji won his second Premier League title with Manchester City.
This is a generation of players who know what it takes to succeed on the international stage. 11 of their squad have more than 50 caps, with former Arsenal player Xhaka in line for his 127th appearance against Scotland.
Memories of eliminating then world champions France in the last Euro on penalties are still fresh in the mind and it was a penalty shoot-out that denied them a place in the semi-finals when they were defeated by Spain.
They backed this up by reaching the qualifiers in Qatar at the last World Cup, although they were unceremoniously knocked out by Portugal.
The match against Scotland won’t faze them in the slightest and coach Murat Yakin will know a win will take them to the last 16 before they even look at the Germans. The incentive for the Swiss is clear.
However, this does not happen without pressure. Yakin had to receive a vote of confidence from the Swiss FA in the days leading up to the tournament, with the appointment of experienced coach Giorgio Contini signaling a change in tactics in recent times to something similar to the successful formation deployed by Yakin’s predecessor Vladimir Petkovic .
A year and a day after Scotland Oslo miracleDo Steve Clarke and his players have a moment of magic in a major tournament like the one provided by Ally McCoist against the Swiss at Villa Park 28 years ago?
Otherwise, this tournament that they did so well to qualify for could go unnoticed.
