Zurich madness in Lucerne A stinking winner, a proud loser, two red cards, three penalties and a row in the studio

Patrick Lämmle

27.1.2025

Lucerne won a totally crazy game against FCZ on Sunday. It's not just the events on the pitch that are extraordinary, but also everything surrounding them.

No time? blue News summarizes for you

  • The FCZ players concede three penalties against Luzern and receive two red cards.
  • Although FCZ goalkeeper Yanick Brecher saves two penalties, the Zurich team loses 1:3. The Lucerne players are able to push the deflected ball over the line twice.
  • Brecher thinks it "sucks". But FCL coach Mario Frick didn't like what he saw either. "We had our pants full after the sending off," he grumbled.
  • FCZ coach Ricardo Moniz, on the other hand, remains calm for once and is not worried about the personnel worries: "We are FCZ. We always have a solution."

In the 12th minute, Sinan Karweina fails with his penalty kick against Yanick Brecher. He doesn't need to fret about the miss, as the deflected ball flies in front of his nose and he nods it in to make it 1:0. Six minutes later, Lucerne were awarded another penalty, which Adrian Grbic confidently converted. And so it is no surprise that he is also allowed to take the third penalty. Now the Austrian also fails to beat Brecher, but Pius Dorn is wide awake and converts the rebound in the 61st minute to make it 3:0.

Opinions are divided on the second penalty. Things get really heated in the blue Sport Studio (see video below).

Events with a rarity value

The statistics provider "Opta", which has been collecting data from the Super League since the 2017/18 season, knows that a team has only ever conceded three penalties in one match once before. And that was not so long ago: on 15 December, Lausanne converted three penalties on the way to a 4-1 away win against leaders Lugano. The fact that a goalkeeper saves two penalties in a match, even if it ultimately doesn't help Zurich, has also only happened twice before in the Super League in the aforementioned period.

In August 2018, the then FCB goalkeeper Jonas Omlin saved two penalties against GC, and in February 2024, Yverdon goalkeeper Karlo Letica achieved this feat against Lausanne. None of this matters to Brecher. He summarized the afternoon as follows: "It sucks - it's three penalty goals - you're outnumbered for a long time." An apology follows for his choice of words.

FCZ did indeed play short-handed for a long time. In the 22nd minute, Daniel Denoon was sent off with a yellow-red card. After the sending off, coach Ricardo Moniz sacrificed attacker Umeh Emmanuel and replaced him with Lindrit Kamberi. The defender scored in the 78th minute to make it 1:3 before being sent off with a red card in the 90th minute for the first time in his career. Substitute, goalscorer, red card - only Elies Mahmoud from Stade Lausanne-Ouchy has achieved this in the Super League before him, on July 30, 2023, also in a match against Lucerne.

The fact that a team conceded three penalties and also received two red cards is unprecedented in the 1427 other Super League matches since the summer of 2017.

A topsy-turvy world on the bench

Anyone listening to the interviews with the two coaches after the game will be amazed. Despite the win, Lucerne coach Mario Frick seems slightly annoyed, as he felt the game should have been decided earlier. And so he says: "We had our pants full after the sending off."

Losing coach Moniz is asked by blue Sport reporter Chris Augsburger what he told his team after the game: "That I'm partly proud of the way we played. [...] I can only say that my team is on a good path." Even the fact that he will be missing several players in the next game does not cause Moniz any headaches: "We are FCZ. We always have a solution, we are mentally strong."

On a sober note, however, FCZ do not always have the best solutions. Of the last eight Super League games, the Zurich side have only won one and lost four. Things are unlikely to get any easier in the classic against FC Basel next Sunday. Should FCZ lose and St. Gallen score away in Lucerne, the Zurich team would slip into the bottom half of the table. However, the table is not all that meaningful, as things can go very quickly in either direction. The gap between FCZ, currently in 6th place, and leaders Lugano is just 5 points after 20 rounds.