Basel lose chances of topping Football league

Basel players congratulate each other on their goal but the celebration was shortlived Keystone Archive

In the seventh round of matches in the Swiss national football league, St Gallen drew with Basel 1-1.

Both teams had everything to play for on Saturday in the final round of seven deciding matches. The draw means that St Gallen maintain their place at the top of the league with Basel tailing behind in third place.

The Basel side were undoubtedly hoping to close the gap between them and St Gallen but all hopes were dashed with the match ending in a draw.

St Gallen dominated the field in the first half leaving Basel lagging behind in their home stadium. Their front line combination of Ionel Gane, Jerren Nixon and Patrick Winkler created many goal opportunities.

But no goals were scored until the second half and when they arrived it was in close succession.

In the 56th minute, Basel’s Tum blasted the first one past the St Gallen goalie after a text -book pass from team mate Hakan Yakin, which ignited the home crowd at St-Jakob-Park.

But the celebration was shortlived with St Gallen’s striker, Gane, equalising three minutes after Basel’s goal.

St Gallen’s forward, Jairo, passed to Gane but the ball was deflected by Basel’s captain, Kreuzer. A misunderstanding between Kreuzer and the Basel goalie König, who grabbed for the intercepted ball, left the goal open and Gane saw his chance and took it, slamming the ball into the back of the net.

For the rest of the match tensions rose high but neither side succeeded in scoring another decisive goal leaving the final score at a 1-1 draw.

With all of their matches now over St Gallen remain at the top of the league but a win for the second placed Grasshoppers, who have one match remaining, could topple St Gallen from the top spot. The Grasshoppers face seventh placed Servette on Monday.

swissinfo with agencies