By beating Lugano and taking advantage of Sunday's draw between Servette and YB, Basel became Swiss champions three days ahead of the end of the Championship Group.
RETURNS TO THE TOP AFTER 8 YEARS
The Rhine club wins its 21st title. Note that as many as 12 championships have been won since 2002. The last one eight years ago with Urs Fischer at the helm and Renato Steffen on the field.
SEVENTH WIN IN A ROW
The progress of Celestini's team has been impressive especially in this 2025. Out of 17 games, the Rossoblu have won 11 and drawn four. Even in the last seven days they have always come out with the three points and an enviable goal haul. Suffice it to say that they scored in order four goals in Zurich and five against Yverdon without conceding any. Another five at Servette (one conceded) and five also at Cornaredo (2 those conceded).
THREE GOALS IN 5′ AND 40"
A big star of the Basil's ride has been Xherdan Shaqiri, who will turn 34 in October. In 31 appearances this season he has netted 18 goals and 20 assists. Against Lugano he scored a hat trick in record time. In fact, subtracting the minutes not played for his and his teammates' jubilation, the three goals were scored in the span of 5 minutes and 40 seconds.
FEW PRECEDENTS IN THE WORLD
At the Swiss level this is probably a record: there had been 20 years ago the six-minute hat-trick by Servetian Kader against YB. Internationally, there has just been the exploit of Atletico Madrid's Alexander Sorloth, who took 3'57" to beat Real Sociedad's goalkeeper three times. Earlier there were three goals in six minutes for Salah with Liverpool and the same haul, but in 3'24, for Gent's Orban in the conference game against Basekeshir.
RECORD ATTENDANCE IN CORNAREDO
To return to the Cornaredo match, the first statistic to note is the record attendance: 5,318 spectators. Nourished even more than usual was the participation of Basel supporters (about 2,200).
USUAL BALL POSSESSION
Otherwise, there was the usual Ticino superiority in ball possession (67%) and passes (492 to 246) with an accuracy rate of 85.1.
20 SHOTS TO 14 FOR LUGANO
The result might suggest absolute domination of the guests. In fact, the first half was balanced with more chances on Lugano's account. At the end there will be 20 shots recorded by Kutsias and his teammates against 14 by the opponents. Conclusions on goal: 7-7 (including goals).
CONTRASTS TO THE BASILIANS
In contrasts, the newly crowned Swiss champions (38 to 26) prevailed. Same on aerial balls (12 to 11). The bianconeri committed 19 fouls against the opponents' 7. Three Lugano players were cautioned (Steffen, Brault-Guillard and Zanotti) while Confederate forward Ajeti received two yellows and was thus sent off at 42′.
SECOND NET FOR BISLIMS
Uran Bislimi netted his second league goal after the one against GC in the opener. The midfielder also scored against Fenerbahce in the Champions League preliminaries and against Besiktas in the Europa League.
GRGIC: EIGHT OUT OF EIGHT PENALTIES
Infallible penalty taker Anto Grgic was confirmed as he beat and converted his eighth poenalty of the season. Before Hitz, the Croatian-born specialist had beaten goalkeepers from YB, Zurich, Lucerne, Sion, Basel (on the 19th day), Sion (on the 27th) and Yverdon.
FIVE ASSISTS FOR ZANOTTI
The goal of the Lugano lead against the Rhinelanders was propitiated by a kissing assist from Mattia Zanotti. That makes five assists so far for the young fullback in this league. To which must be added the three assists in the Conference League and the two in the Europa League qualifiers.
