Helvetia Swiss Cup: FC Zurich suffer 1:3 defeat against FC Basel
FC Zurich have lost the Helvetia Swiss Cup quarter-final away 1:3 against FC Basel tonight and have been eliminated from this season’s cup competition.
The visitors from Zurich showed a convincing start to this game and took the 1:0 lead just 3 minutes in: Following a cross by Rodriguez, the ball landed in front of Oliver Buff whose first attempt on goal was blocked by his teammate Dwamena. Buff then had more luck with his second powerful shot, beating Basel keeper Vaclik and putting his colors in front.
8 minutes in, Basel’s Steffen should have been sent off with a straight red card following violent conduct against his opponent Cédric Brunner. The referee, however, only booked him.
After 20 minutes, the home side found its way back into this match when a cross by Lang found Janko in front of the Zurich goal who nodded the ball home to equalize the score at 1:1.
And just before the half-time whistle, FC Basel took the lead completely out of the blue: A lucky shot by Lang from a narrow angle caught Zurich keeper Vanins off guard in the near bottom corner and found its way into the net to make the score 2:1 for the home team.
FC Basel were then in full control of the action on the pitch during the opening minutes of the second half. But when Xhaka was sent off on 56 minutes with his second yellow card of the evening, FC Zurich had the opportunity to play in numerical superiority for more than 30 minutes and had several chances to equalize the score.
But unfortunately, the game was ultimately decided on 75 minutes when Steffen, who should have been sent off early on in the match, finished off a Basel counterattack to put the final score to 3:1. With this defeat, FC Zurich have been eliminated from this season’s cup competition.
