Lugano held by Sion
Swiss football's league leaders Lugano were only able to take a single point from their opening championship round match at home to Sion.
The side from canton Valais, joint bottom in the championship table, took a surprise lead through Eric Baubonne in the 40th minute of Sunday’s match. The winter champions struck back just before the break with a headed goal from new signing Kubilay Türkyilmaz.
It was the Swiss veteran’s 138th goal in the Swiss top division and his first for Lugano.
The second half saw Lugano increase the pressure on the Sion defence, but the winning goal failed to materialise. The Ticinese side did find the net twice late on in the match, but both efforts were ruled offside.
Despite the draw, Lugano were able to maintain their one point lead from the qualifying round, thanks to St Gallen’s away defeat to Zurich Grasshoppers on Friday.
The defending champions missed the chance to climb above Lugano after losing 2-1 at Grasshoppers’ Hardturm stadium, a result which lifted the Zurich side into second place behind Lugano.
In the weekend’s other matches, Lausanne needed a last minute goal to scrape a 1-1 home draw against FC Zurich, while Servette pulled off an unexpected 3-0 win at home to Basel.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.