High tension in the Super League Basel duel with the Lucerne puppies for the top of the table

The 22nd round of the Super League concludes on Thursday with a top-of-the-table clash between Basel and Lucerne and a crisis duel between Winterthur and Zurich.

Keystone-SDA

06.02.2025, 15:00

SDA

Basel is the Super League team that has improved the most compared to the previous season. At the same time last year, Fabio Celestini's team had collected twelve points fewer and had a negative goal difference. Statistically, they now have both the best attack (47 goals) and the strongest defense (22 goals conceded).

In the first ten home games of this season, an average of 4,000 more spectators came to St. Jakob-Park than in the previous season. Thanks in part to the return of Xherdan Shaqiri, who is the best assist provider in the league with eleven assists, FCB is inspiring again. It is a team that can become champions, said former club great Marco Streller at an event in Basel on Monday evening.

The energy of the young Lucerne players

FC Lucerne, who like Basel had to end last season in the relegation group, made a similar rise to FCB. Under Mario Frick, a fan favorite in Basel at the end of the nineties, the team from central Switzerland has developed into a title contender. "Lucerne have a young team with a lot of energy," praised FCB coach Fabio Celestini, who led FCL to Cup victory in 2021. "If you don't play with the same energy, you don't stand a chance."

FC Basel have been warned by their opponents, not least because they have not won at home against FC Lucerne since April 2022. Mario Frick's team won the first clash of the season 1-0 at the end of September. The only scorer at the time was Luca Jaquez, who had just been transferred to Stuttgart. Frick therefore feels like "a puppy farmer, where it really hurts when another youngster leaves," summarizes the Liechtenstein native. Of course, the 50-year-old's joy for Jaquez outweighs his disappointment: "I thanked him for his three years with us."

With defender Ismajl Beka out until April, Frick is calling for reinforcements: "We need a fourth central defender - let's see what the market has to offer." Donat Rrudhani will also be missing. Like Dominik Schmid and Albian Ajeti, he is suspended by FCB.

Solidarity is required against "favorite Basel" (quote from Frick). "Shaqiri won't be man-marked because otherwise it opens up space for the others," explained Frick.

Disgruntled FCZ sporting director

While two of the big rising stars of recent months face each other at St. Jakob-Park, the two teams with the weakest form in the league will be competing at the same time in Winterthur on Thursday evening. FCW have picked up just two points in their last five games, while FC Zurich have only gained one more point in the same period.

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The 3-0 defeat in Yverdon in particular was a low blow for Winterthur. Despite the disappointment at the weekend, Uli Forte remains positive ahead of his fourth match as coach of the bottom club: "The advantage is that we can react immediately and don't have much time to think about it."

In Zurich, the points total is higher thanks to a good start to the season, but the mood is gloomier. On Wednesday lunchtime, coach Ricardo Moniz and head of sport Milos Malenovic faced the media representatives. Malenovic complained about the negative reporting, which he described as "propaganda by certain publishers".

Malenovic justified the recent transfers of former top performers with the inadequate attitude of certain players who were dissatisfied with their situation at FCZ. "We have a lot of points in our account. That gives us a certain buffer to make the season even more successful and, above all, to look to the future - and to work with the players who want to be with us."