After two home wins on Thursday by Lausanne and the ZSC Lions, the visitors in the National League play-off quarter-finals will win twice on Friday with Fribourg-Gottéron in Bern and Davos in Zug.
15.03.2025, 02:09
15.03.2025, 07:59
SDA
The Zähringen derby between third-placed Bern and sixth-placed Fribourg-Gottéron is highly charged. As if that weren't enough, Fribourg's coach since last December has been Lars Leuenberger. The 49-year-old has a long history with his opponents. He played 292 games for the Bernese in the top league, more than for any other club, and won the championship title with the SCB in 1997.
He did the same as head coach in 2016 after replacing Guy Boucher in November 2015. He had previously been his assistant. Leuenberger led the Bernese team to the title, even though they had only finished eighth in qualifying. However, it was clear even before the triumph that he would be replaced by Kari Jalonen. Nevertheless, he returned to the SCB in 2017 in a different role and stayed until 2020.
Fribourg brought up to scratch
Leuenberger therefore has a lot in common with the Bernese club. It would therefore be all the sweeter for him if he were to succeed in eliminating the 16-time Swiss champions - Bern has not won a playoff series since winning the title in 2019. However, Leuenberger has got Fribourg back on track. When he became coach there shortly before Christmas, Gottéron were only 11th in the table. He subsequently led the team to its first title in the club's history by winning the Spengler Cup in Davos and Fribourg won 14 of the remaining 21 games in qualifying. The reward was direct play-off qualification with Bern as their opponents.
Fribourg has reached the playoff final four times to date. SCB was the opponent in 1992 and 2013. The first final series against the Bernese was lost in the decisive fifth game, the second with a 2:4 win. 2013 was the last time the two teams met in the playoffs. Now it's that time again and the first encounter showed what to expect. "It was a real battle and all in all an even game," said Fribourg forward Kevin Nicolet, who scored the 1-0 goal in the 4-3 away win after overtime. There is much to suggest that the game will continue in the same vein.
Davos plan works
Like Fribourg, Davos also started the playoff quarter-finals with a break thanks to a 2:1 win at EV Zug, who were struggling with injuries. Because Zug had been very strong offensively over the entire season, they had resolved to play simply and solidly at the back, said HCD forward Nico Gredig, who had prepared Julian Parrée's 1:0. "We managed that well". Zug forward Nando Eggenberger thought they had played into Davos' hands with their mistakes. "But we also had good phases."
