Manuel Akanji started for Switzerland as they were beaten by Ghana in a World Cup warm-up match.

The defender, who was making his 43rd senior international appearance, played the first half of the 2-0 defeat in Abu Dhabi.

Ghana, who are in Group H at Qatar 2022 along with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea, had to wait until the second half to find a breakthrough.

Southampton’s Mohammed Salisu opened the scoring in the 70th minute before Bristol City striker Antoine Semenyo added a second four minutes later.

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The Swiss kick off their World Cup campaign on Thursday November 24 with an opening game against Cameroon.

Akanji will then be reunited with City team-mate Ederson when Switzerland face Brazil four days later, before they round off their group stage with a clash against Serbia on Friday December 2.

Qatar will be Akanji’s second experience of the World Cup having been part of the side that reached the last-16 in 2018.

He started all of the group games, including the draws with Brazil and Costa Rica and victory over Serbia.

But Switzerland were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Sweden at the knockout stages while their Euro 2020 campaign ended at the quarter-final stage with a penalty shootout defeat to Spain.