Jesse Marsch outlined his desire for Canada to finish top of Group B in order to remain in Vancouver for the knockout stages of their World Cup campaign. 

Canada are yet to confirm their place in the last 32 of the competition despite their 6-0 victory over Qatar last time out, but they remain in control of their own destiny. 

They face Switzerland at BC Place on Wednesday, with their opponents also on four points after two matches and aiming to finish the first phase of the tournament with a flourish.

Should Canada avoid defeat, they will stay at the top of the standings and face their next opponent on home soil in Vancouver. That is Belgium, currently, ahead of the final round of fixtures, though they could also face the best third-placed teams from either Group E, F, I and J. 

Switzerland, meanwhile, are looking to qualify for the knockout rounds of the World Cup for the fourth successive edition (also 2014, 2018 and 2022), and they arrive with confidence after thumping Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-1. 

But Marsch revealed that he had been prepared for this moment when the draw was made, and he believes that his team are ready to get the job done. 

"Staying here in ​Vancouver is definitely our number one goal," Marsch told a news conference. 

"When ⁠I took the job, as soon as the format of the tournament, as soon as I found that ​out, I said, okay, we have a clear objective, we want to win the group.

"Two years ago, ​everybody thought I was crazy, right? That prospect at the time wouldn't be possible, but this is where I expected us to be.

"When we drew Switzerland, we thought, okay, let's position ourselves to make sure that we are competing for our goal to ​stay in Vancouver in that last match, and so we're here, and we're going to be ready for ​it."

Canada netted twice as many goals in their last match against Qatar (six) as their prior seven World Cup matches combined, while it was also their first clean sheet at the tournament in what is their third appearance at the finals. 

This will be the nation's first World Cup meeting. Their only previous encounter came in a May 2002 friendly in St. Gallen. Canada won that match 3-1, with current Switzerland boss Murat Yakin playing at centre-back in that game. 

Ahead of kick-off, the Opta supercomputer has assigned Switzerland a 44.2% chance of victory to Canada's 27.8% in its 10,000 data-led simulations. 

The likelihood of a draw is 28%, which would be enough for Canada to finish top, though Marsch insisted his team would go out to try and win the match. 

"I feel like the worst way to get the draw is to play for a draw," Marsch added.

"I think you have to go into the match and play for a win, and then in the later stages of the match you can use your substitutes, and you can use tactics to now ​manage what you need out ​of the match.

"So managing ⁠the result is how I say it, so I think that we were going to start this match, going into it with the mentality and the tactics to ​win."