Basel lift Swiss Cup after penalty drama
FC Basel have beaten FC Lucerne 1-0 in the 82nd Swiss Cup final after scoring a penalty in the 93rd minute.
Daniel Majstorovic’s cool conversion, after Scott Chipperfield appeared to be brought down by the Lucerne goalkeeper, gave Basel their eighth Swiss Cup.
“We needed a bit of luck to win like this in injury time,” admitted Basel manager Christian Gross. “It really wasn’t easy for us against a Lucerne team that managed to close the spaces very well. We found it hard to develop our football.”
He added: “The boys found it hard to digest the loss of the league title on Thursday [Zurich ended up one point ahead of Basel]. They reacted today with real gusto.”
A 30,000 crowd filled the Stade de Suisse on a cold and wet Bernese day to see favourites Basel start as they meant to go on: dictating the play, getting the ball into the Lucerne half and creating the better chances.
Lucerne keeper David Zibung had to pull off at least three good saves in the first 45 minutes, whereas his Basel counterpart, Argentinean Franco Costanzo, was largely untroubled.
But despite all the pressure from Basel, the first half ended 0-0.
The second half saw more of the same, with Basel looking most likely to score and Lucerne, who ended their league season in eighth position, limited to taking pot shots from outside the area.
Basel will claim, with justification, that they should have had a penalty in the 47th minute for handball, but referee Nicole Petignat, who in 2003 became the first woman to referee a match in the Uefa Cup, waved play on.
Penalty!
Petignat made up for this by awarding in the 90th minute a penalty which will be debated by partisan fans and armchair pundits for years.
Basel striker Scott Chipperfield had picked up the ball on the edge of the area and had beaten Zibung, when the Lucerne goalkeeper stretched out his left hand and appeared to make light contact with Chipperfield’s foot.
This was enough for the Australian-born striker to go to the floor and for Petignat to show Zibung the red card and award a penalty that, if successful, would in effect decide the Swiss Cup.
Majstorovic kept his head to slot the ball past Lucerne’s substitute keeper Besnik Zukaj.
Lucerne manager Ciriaco Sforza made clear which side of the debate he was on. “For me one thing is certain: that wasn’t a penalty! Zibung never touched Chipperfield. To lose like that is very hard. I can only compliment my players. They delivered a great performance. Before the final many commentators reckoned we were heading for a massacre. That was far from being the case.”
Lucerne fans can feel hard done by the means of the defeat, but apart from striker Mauro Lustrinelli’s failure to take advantage of an appalling back pass by Basel’s Reto Zanni in the 86th minute, Lucerne never looked like scoring.
Basel have now won the Cup eight times, most recently in 2002 and 2003 – although those victories broke a drought of almost 30 years.
The last time Lucerne were in the final of the Swiss Cup was in 2005, when they were beaten 3-1 by Zurich.
Basel fans were not the only ones celebrating their team’s victory. As Basel will now be taking part in the Uefa Cup as a cup winner, Young Boys Bern, who finished fourth in the league, will now also participate in the Uefa competition.
swissinfo, Thomas Stephens with agencies
FC Basel have won the Swiss Cup, which was played for the first time in 1925, eight times (1933, 1947, 1963, 1967, 1975, 2002, 2003 and 2007).
FC Lucerne have won it twice (1960 and 1992).
Grasshoppers Zurich have won the Swiss Cup the most times (18).
Winners of the Swiss Cup since 1995:
2007 Basel
2006 Sion
2005 FC Zurich
2004 Wil
2003 Basel
2002 Basel
2001 Servette
2000 FC Zurich
1999 Lausanne
1998 Lausanne
1997 Sion
1996 Sion
1995 Sion
Champions League: FC Zurich (champions)
Uefa Cup: FC Basel (Cup winners and runners-up in championship)
Uefa Cup: FC Sion (Third place in championship)
Uefa Cup: Young Boys Bern (Fourth place in championship)
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