FCZ as FCB role model?: The cup is the last chance for Europe

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The FCB has to write off the title battle after eleven league games: 19 (!) points behind leader FCZ, 17 behind the second YB. Even the last round of the best six is ​​far away for the team from Basel: Lugano, Winterthur and Yverdon in places 6, 7 and 8 are already 11 points away.

So far, no club that was last after eleven games has managed to qualify for Europe through the competition.

According to the statistics, the only thing left for the long-suffering Basel team is the cup competition to secure the all-important European ticket. The cup title would mean the third qualifying round or the play-offs for the Europa League.

Don’t put one foot in front of the other in the championship and win the cup. Is that possible? Yes. FCB’s great rival, FCZ, mainly showed the way. The eventual cup winner was even relegated in the 2015/16 season. The sad images of FCZ leaders Alain Nef and Gilles Yapi placing the trophy in front of the south bend on May 29, 2016 and then retreating to the dressing room will never be forgotten.

Not even a third of the season has been played – inferior FCB are still a long way from relegation. Also from the cup win. Four victories are still missing. The first hurdle awaits on Wednesday with SC Kriens from the Promotion League in the eighth finals.

Fabian Frei: “There is a lack of will or faith somewhere”

An obstacle that could have been overcome recently with the B-team and immediately. An obstacle that one could stumble over in the current situation. FCB veteran Fabian Frei is well served after the dismal 3-0 defeat in Lausanne. “After such a performance I have no words left, I feel completely empty,” said the veteran. In the end they had a ten-minute lead, he tells Blue, “but it was Lausanne who had chances. We didn’t even get into the opponent’s penalty area. There is a lack of will or faith somewhere.”

No one at FCB has spoken publicly since. Coach Heiko Vogel’s press conference prior to the cup match was quickly canceled. And his successor Fabio Celestini is also the first to commit to his new team. Alarm signal for the FCB before the round of 16 in Kriens, where a victory is mandatory but not self-evident: It was not so long ago that the FCB already said goodbye to an opponent from the third division in the round of 16. 2021 with the 0-1 victory over Étoile Carouge. The difference is that at the Cup-Out two years ago they were still represented in Europe under coach Patrick Framework and were in first place in the championship.

Source : Blick