Coach Celestini is faced with a riddle: FCB loses heart and lungs

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Two more weeks until Christmas Eve – slowly but surely the contemplative days begin! But not at FC Basel – the tree is still burning at Rood-Blauw! After the 0-1 defeat and the first home defeat against the Grasshoppers in seven and a half years, it is clear that coach Fabio Celestini and his players will spend Christmas at most in 9th place.

Bad enough! But to reach a single-digit spot in the table before the winter break, they need a win in Lucerne in the last match of the year. The problem is that FC Basel will travel to Central Switzerland without a heart and lungs.

The heart? Renato Veiga! No FCB professional has played more passes than the Portuguese this season: 731 in total. And this despite the fact that the twenty-year-old’s transfer to Basel only took place before matchday 6. Although Veiga has not played so strikingly since his dream debut against FCZ (2:2), the statistics are impressive: more than 85 percent of his passes reach his teammate – a top value! Because he received his fourth yellow card of the season in the final phase of the classification match, he had to wait out the end of the year in Lucerne.

Taulant Xhaka must do the same. The red-blue lungs! No one runs more, fights more, no one tackles, scratches and bites more than the FCB veteran. Always full throttle! And sometimes the 32-year-old exaggerates: in the 18th minute, Xhaka kicked classification striker Bradley Fink in the abdomen with an open sole, after which referee Luca Piccolo immediately drew a red card. It was the third direct red card in Xhaka’s long career. FCB career (since 2010), fourth expulsion in total. In any case, Xhaka will be missing in Lucerne and it is quite possible that he will also have to see the start of the second half of the season against FCZ on January 21.

Without a heart and without lungs – Celestini faces a puzzle: how will FCB survive against the strong home team FC Luzern in a week’s time? Especially since the alternatives are few and far between: Xhaka and Veiga join an already long list of failures. FCB reported nine injured players against the rankings, all with potential for a permanent place. And as if the suspensions against Xhaka and Veiga weren’t enough, Kevin Rüegg also has to go out with muscle problems against the Hoppers.

It is certain that FCB will not fill the match sheet in Lucerne, as they did against the Hoppers.

Source : Blick