Switzerland’s veteran boss Ottmar Hitzfeld retires after the World Cup finals and his young squad aim to give him a farewell to remember in Brazil, AFP reports.

In their third consecutive World Cup, the “Nati” are out to prove that their seventh place in FIFA’s global rankings is not a statistical fluke.

The 65-year-old German Hitzfeld has set his sights on at least clearing Group E, where Switzerland face France, Ecuador and Honduras.

Reaching the last 16 would erase Switzerland’s bad memories of 2010 in South Africa.

They were the only team to beat eventual champions Spain, winning 1-0 in their opening game, but then lost 1-0 to Chile and drew 0-0 with Honduras and so failed to reach the knockout stage.

That was a blow after their showing in Germany in 2006 under Hitzfeld’s predecessor, Swiss icon Koebi Kuhn.

There, they finished top of their group, ahead of France, South Korea and Togo, but were knocked out on penalties by Ukraine in the next round.