Two teams from the Super League, Lucerne and Servette, were knocked out of the Cup on Sunday. They have only themselves to blame for this.
There are astonishing parallels between the elimination of FC Luzern and that of Servette on Sunday. Both teams entered their cup round of 16 matches as big favorites - Lucerne away in Aarau at the Challenge League's second-to-last team, defending champions Servette at their league rivals Schaffhausen. In the end, both were defeated by the underdogs.
Even though the top-flight side got off to the better start, the underdogs rebelled as the game wore on. However, both at Brügglifeld and in the FCS Arena, they needed the kind help of the favorites. Geneva's Jérémy Guillemenot (for a foul) and Lucerne's Donat Rrudhani (for a foul) were shown yellow cards midway through the second half. In both stadiums, the home team were able to take advantage of their numerical superiority shortly before the end to score the winning goal.
The analyses of the coaches of the losing Super League teams differed. While Servette's Thomas Häberli spoke of a "big disappointment" and "not a good performance" in front of the SRF microphone, Lucerne's Mario Frick thought his team's performance was "mostly good". The Liechtenstein player also said that the attitude was right from the very first minute. "The team knew what was at stake and gave their all."
After winning the title last year, Servette have already reached the second round for the first time in five years. The last time Lucerne failed to make it past the round of 16 was twelve years ago, but it was the third time in a row that they were defeated by a lower-ranked team, last year against Delémont from the Promotion League.
In the end, both coaches came to the following conclusion: "The game cannot be repeated, there are no second chances in the Cup."
