What had been an otherwise uneventful encounter for the first 73 minutes came to life when 20-year-old Johan Manzambi crashed in a volley just 166 seconds after his introduction, before Tarik Muharemovic was shown a straight red for catching Breel Embolo on the heel as the last man.
Embolo then teed up another sub, Ruben Vargas, to hit a first-time shot past Nikola Vasilj to make it 2-0 and it was three with 90 minutes on the clock when Freiburg midfielder Manzambi coolly side-footed in his second.
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There was still more action to come, though.
On just his third appearance for his country, Ermin Mahmic reduced the deficit when he beat Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel with the sweetest of volleys from just inside the box.
But the three-goal cushion was restored with one of the final kicks of the game when Swiss captain Granit Xhaka rolled in from the spot after Djibril Sow had been brought down by Amar Memic.
