Zürich go top

Zurich (in yellow) were unable to defeat Lausanne Keystone Archive

FC Zürich are the new leaders of the Swiss football league, following their 1-1 draw in Lausanne on Wednesday.

Zurich are yet to lose this season and seemed to be heading for a comfortable win as the match at the Pontaise stadium got underway. It took just 14 minutes for Georges Bregy’s side to open the scoring with Mikhail Kavelashvili grabbing his fourth goal of the early season.

Despite strong pressure, though, Zurich were unable to stretch their lead in the next half hour and after the break found themselves facing a much more determined Lausanne side.

Pressing forward, the team from canton Vaud won a corner five minutes after the restart, which was promptly taken by new Brazilian midfielder Isaïas and turned into the Zurich goal by 20-year-old defender Remo Meyer.

Zurich’s earlier dominance was long forgotten in the closing stages as Lausanne’s Polish striker Marcin Kuzba came close to snatching a winner for the home side.

In the end, though, the draw was enough to put Zurich top of the table, level on points with Sion and Lugano, both of whom have played one match more than Zurich.

Lugano win in Lucerne

Lugano owed their climb up the standings to a 2-1 away win in Lucerne, which the Ticinese side were able to complete with just ten men on the pitch.

Joël Magnin put Lugano ahead after less than five minutes, before seeing his effort cancelled out by a Giorgio Contini equaliser in the 16th minute. Then with just over half an hour gone, the two goalscorers were involved in a fight which ended with Magnin being shown the red card.

But last year’s league runners-up remained the stronger side and sealed all three points thanks to a long-range strike in the 63rd minute from Argentinian man-of-the-match Sergio José Bastida.

Young Boys impressive

Newly-promoted Bern Young Boys maintained their impressive start to the season after pulling off a 1-1 draw away to defending champions Grasshoppers Zurich.

Grasshoppers took the lead shortly before half-time through former Young Boys player Luca Ippoliti, but in the very last minute of the match, Bern midfielder Gürkan Sermeter equalised with a stunning free-kick taken from some 18 metres out.

But for having an earlier penalty claim against Grasshoppers keeper Peter Jehle turned down, Young Boys could even have come away with their first win at the Hardturm in almost ten years.

St Gallen comeback

Grasshoppers’ predecessors as Swiss champions, St Gallen, were also only able to manage a home draw on Wednesday – but it was Marcel Koller’s team that had to stage the comeback against a committed Basel team.

Christian Gross’s men stormed into a 3-1 lead with St Gallen’s Brazilian forward Jefferson firing the only reply to goals from Ivan Ergic, Murat Yakin and Oliver Kreuzer.

Two goals in eight minutes then saw St Gallen back on level terms, Luis Jairo converting a 62nd minute penalty shortly Ivan dal Santo made it 3-3 with a deflected free kick.

Basel’s last two trips to St Gallen had ended with controversial refereeing decisions and Wednesday’s match proved no exception. With ten minutes to go South African striker George Koumantarakis appeared to have finally broken Basel’s jinx at the Espenmoos stadium, but his ‘goal’ was ruled out for a hotly disputed offside.

First points for Servette

In Wednesday’s last remaining match, Swiss Cup winners Servette finally got their first league points of the season with a deserved win over a toothless Neuchâtel Xamax. After a sterile first half, Léonard Thurre fired Servette ahead just short of the hour mark.

Substitute Thierno Bah then made sure of the points, scoring the Genevan side’s second goal in the 76th minute, having come off the bench in the 75th.

swissinfo with agencies