| Switzerland | 3 |
|---|---|
| Honduras | 0 |
MANAUS, Brazil — Xherdan Shaqiri’s hat trick put Switzerland into the second round of the World Cup, and kept coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gainfully employed for at least a few more days.
Shaqiri scored a pair of first-half goals and added another in the second Wednesday to give Switzerland a 3-0 victory over Honduras, a result that put the Swiss in second place in Group E behind France.
‘‘We knew that we were going to show great football today,’’ said Shaqiri, a Bayern Munich winger. ‘‘For us, this has been really a dream to be in the World Cup, small Switzerland in the World Cup.’’
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The small Swiss will next face the not-so-small Lionel Messi and Argentina Tuesday in Sao Paulo in what could be Hitzfeld’s final match. The German veteran, a two-time Champions League winner as a coach, has said this tournament will be his last.
‘‘We are really anxious for that,” said Shaqiri. “We also know that we are not the favorites for the match, but we are going to try for victory. Getting to the Round of 16, everything is possible. You never know.’’
Meanwhile, Honduras coach Luis Fernando Suarez quit his job following the loss, which left the team winless in its three matches.
Shaqiri scored his first goal in the sixth minute, dribbling into a crowd of defenders and curling a shot into the net off the underside of the crossbar. In the 31st, he collected a pass from Josip Drmic after a defensive error and easily beat Honduras goalkeeper Noel Valladares.
Shaqiri completed his hat trick in the 71st minute. Drmic did well to beat Honduras defender Victor Bernardez on the left and pass to a charging Shaqiri, who one-timed his shot past a diving Valladares.
The game at Arena da Amazonia was the fourth and final one to be played in the Brazilian rainforest, and the second to have an official cooling break because of the stifling heat and humidity.
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According to FIFA, it was 79 degrees with the humidity at 88 percent when the match started. Referee Nestor Pitana of Argentina made the decision to stop the match in the 39th, and the break lasted for about a minute.
After three 6 p.m. starts at the Arena da Amazonia, Wednesday’s match started at 4 p.m. But a noontime thunderstorm combined with overcast skies and a slight breeze cooled the temperature a bit.
‘‘Toward the end things were getting tougher, but we managed to deal with this,’’ Hitzfeld said. ‘‘We ran for the ball.’’
The extreme weather had been something Honduras was looking forward to. The Central American country has a similar climate, and they often play qualifiers under the same circumstances in an effort to gain an advantage over opposing teams.