Switzerland Beats Serbia in a Game Tinged With History and Politics

KALININGRAD, Russia — It was Xherdan Shaqiri’s right boot that made the headlines before his match on Friday, but it was his left boot, and his hands, that were the story after the game ended.

Shaqiri’s 90th-minute goal in a 2-1 victory against Serbia was the final act of a pulsating match. It was also a game dominated by questions of identity and belonging, of war and peace. Three members of Switzerland’s starting lineup, including both of its goal scorers on Friday, were born in, or have roots, in Kosovo, an ethnically Albanian province that fought a war of independence against Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces in the late 1990s.