Basel end away day blues
FC Basel have raced to the top of the Swiss football league table after a comprehensive 4-1 away win against rivals Servette in Geneva.
The victory means Basel leapfrog Bern’s Young Boys, who briefly went top of the table after a resounding 7-0 defeat of Lausanne on Saturday.
Though Basel have so far enjoyed a strong season at home, not conceding a single match when playing on their own pitch, Monday night’s victory marked their first away win of the campaign.
Servette seemed outclassed on the pitch from the moment the referee blew the whistle, and it only took 12 minutes for Basel’s Gimenez to knock the first ball into the home team’s net and set the pace for the rest of the match.
Chipperfield followed the strong start just before half-time with a goal in the 42nd minute.
When Servette returned from the dressing room to begin the second-half fightback, they could not have expected such an immediate onslaught: it took less than a minute for Basel’s Hakan Yakin to make it three in a row and effectively seal the home side’s fate.
By the time Gimenez got round to clocking up his second goal of the night in the 71st minute, Servette seemed to have abandoned any hope of turning the game around.
A last-ditch goal by Dill in the 92nd was just enough to restore honour and give the home crowd something to cheer about, but by then Basel had the match and the top spot sewn up.
The disappointing scoreline was a blow to Servette fans, who had been hoping to see their team build on their midweek success in knocking Slavia Prague out in the first round of the UEFA Cup.
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