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They did everything asked of them, but win.

Playing the opening match of a big tournament at home, trying to convince skeptical fans who grew more supportive as the evening wore on, and without their injured captain for the entire second half, Switzerland had the better of the play, the better of the chances, but lost 1-0 to the Czech Republic in the Euro 2008 kick off at St. Jakob-Park.

Substitute Vaclav Sverkos's goal in the 71st minute against the run of play, combined with stellar goaltending from Petr Cech, was enough to allow the Czech's to escape with a victory they barely earned.

Sverkos, who came on for a closely-marked, ineffective Jan Koller in the second half, gobbled up a ball headed back by an advancing teammate just as the entire Swiss team seemed to be moving upfield together. He was barely onside as the Swiss defenders scrambled back, and neatly slotted a ball into the corner past keeper Diego Benaglio.

With the home crowd cheering them on, the Swiss played desperately for the equalizer, and nearly had it ten minutes later. First, a ball in the air was headed by Marco Streller onto the hand of Tomas Ujfalusi, but the call for the penalty wasn't made — despite howls of protest from the Swiss players.

"I actually jumped against the ball and the ball hit my hand," Ujfalusi said. "I couldn't do anything about it."

It might not have mattered, because an instant later, Tranquillo Barnetta found himself alone, at point blank range, and fired a shot that stayed out only because of a brilliant, diving save by Cech.

Cech wasn't in position to deal with the rebound, but Johan Vonlanthen smacked it off the woodwork.

"This was not our best," Czech Republic coach Karel Bruckner said.

There were other chances before that — most notably by Hakan Yakin, who came in for the injured Alexander Frei, headed a ball just wide from close range.

Frei went down late in the first half after absorbing an awkward tackle. He was weeping as he was helped off the field, and returned to the bench in the second half on crutches. Early reports described the injury as a hyper-extended knee.

The loss was crushing, but might not be fatal to Switzerland's hopes to advance beyond the opening round. To accomplish that, they will almost certainly need to beat one of their two remaining opponents, Portugal or Turkey.

"I told them they can leave the stadium with their heads held high," Switzerland manager Jakob Kuhn said. "Now we have to forget about this game and concentrate on the next match, against Turkey.

"Our chances of going through have certainly not increased but we still believe. Everything is still possible and we are not going to give up. We must build on what we did here today."