St Gallen stay top of national league despite Lugano victory
St Gallen have narrowly managed to cling onto their position at the top of the Swiss football table after the seventh round of matches in this year's National league.
Although St Gallen failed to gain any league points after a draw with Basel on Saturday, the other teams were unable to knock them off top spot with their final scores after Monday’s matches.
Lugano beat Lausanne at Pontaise 3-0, which is the first time Lausanne have lost on home turf since last November.
Although Lausanne played a defensive game they were unable to prevent the Ticinese team from scoring. The first ball to hit the back of the net was an own goal and came as a bitter disappointment to the home team.
The next two came in the second half with Julio Hernan Rossi blasting thorough the Lausanne defence, followed by Christian Gimenez in the closing minutes of the game
Lugano’s victory puts them second in the league trailing St Gallen by only one point.
The Grasshoppers lost to Servette 1-0 which prevented them from replacing St Gallen at the top of the league. However they are still only one point behind the leaders and have the same amount of points as second placed Lugano even though they are currently ranked third.
Zurich went head-to-head with Sion at home and came out with a 3-1 victory. Patrick Bühlmann blasted the first one home only to be equalised by Sion’s Anthony Sirufo in the 81st minute. But in an exciting climax to the game, Zurich scored two goals in the last ten minutes, with Akale Kanga making it 2-1 in the 88th minute and Tariq Chihab sealing the Zurich victory 3-1 in the 91st minute.
With seven of the eight teams all within four points of one another, there is still everything to play for in the national league. At only half way through the total number of matches St Gallen cannot afford to rest on their laurels at the top of the table.
swissinfo with agencies
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