Basel faced a delicate task: YB, a big favorite



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FCB coach Ciriaco Sforza and YB captain Fabian Lustenberger want to enter the Europa League.

Image: Getty

YB and Basel will battle for entry to the Europa League group stage on Thursday night. On paper, Swiss teams are the favorites.

BSC Young Boys – KF Tirana

There can be no excuses after the match: a win against Tirana is a must for YB. Of course no opponent should be underestimated, but the Albanian champions are not really a heavyweight, just a look at the market value of the entire team, which according to the “Transfermarkt” amounts to 4.35 million euros. YB’s workforce is valued at 59.08 million euros.

The naked numbers are deceptive and in a single game the favorite does not always prevail, this is seen over and over again in the different cup competitions. But Tirana’s last serious fight was a month ago, when it was a 2-1 loss to Teuta Durrës in the Albanian Super Cup. Also, YB plays at home and the Berners are tough to beat.

Both YB and Tirana started in the Champions League qualifier and were able to win their first game there. Out against Midtjylland, YB turned into a huge 0-3 loss. Tirana, and that’s almost a small surprise, knocked out Dinamo Tbilisi and then lost to Red Star Belgrade, a Champions League regular, just 0: 1. And yet Tirana YB should only be dangerous if they Bernese do not go to work with full concentration. And we really don’t want to assume that.


FC Basel’s task is more delicate as they will face the record champion of Bulgaria. CSKA Sofia, who finished third in the championship last year, eliminated Sirens FC (Malta), Bate Borisov (Belarus) and B36 Tórshavn (Faroe Islands) en route to the all-important knockout round. The lot had good intentions with the Bulgarians, the traditional club was able to compete at home three times. But that will not be the case against Basel.

FCB should be encouraged because ZSKA is struggling with double loading and has failed to win the league three times in a row recently. They lost to Lok Plovdiv on Sunday, making Sofia only fifth after seven days of play. It is noteworthy that ZSKA was able to score at least one goal in all ten competitive matches this season.

So there are certainly parallels between FCB and ZSKA. Because Basel also dominated international tasks (2: 1 against NK Osijek and 3: 2 against Anorthosis), but they showed a different face in the league. The 2: 2 against FC Vaduz was initially followed by a 0: 1 defeat against Servette. If we stick to market values, the Swiss representative also has a clear advantage in this match: FCB players are worth 39.95 million euros, those of ZSKA 18.53.

Nothing can be bought, especially not the ticket to the Europa League group stage. There must be a tight box, open exit. Internationally, however, FCB has always impressed in recent years.


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Europa League standings: the matches at a glance



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