Guillaume Hoarau is the man of the hour in the Super League: once again, the Goalgetter scores twice for the Young Boys and thus heralds FC Basel’s first defeat of the season. After being sent off for Nuhu, the champion only scores by hand penalty from Matias Delgado. The bottom line is that it is a well-deserved success for YB, who have reduced the gap to the FCB to twelve points.
- Christoph Kieslich
- Samuel Waldis
/ 03.12.2016, 03:56 Uhr / 5 Kommentare
Guillaume Hoarau is the man of the hour in the Super League: once again, the Goalgetter scores twice for the Young Boys and thus heralds FC Basel’s first defeat of the season. After being sent off for Nuhu, the champion only scores by hand penalty from Matias Delgado. The bottom line is that it is a well-deserved success for YB, who have reduced the gap to the FCB to twelve points.
Taulant Xhaka did not want to allow his adversary the small moment to savour a nice success. First he fiddled with Guillaume Hoarau, then Xhaka yelled with his neck arteries swelling towards the referee, because he could not bear how provocatively slowly Hoarau left the pitch.
The two minutes of injury time were already running down, the game was decided at 3-1 and Xhaka and the Basel champions were defeated for the first time this season. The young boys, who had to play outnumbered for half a time, and Guillaume Hoarau, two-time scorer and spiritus rector of Berne, beat each other.
YB coach Adi Hütter had only described Hoarau’s role for YB the day before the top fight. He described the Frenchman as a “gold piece” and put forward the thesis that without the injury of his goalgetter the gap to the FCB could be seven, eight points less.
Robbery Young Boys
But Hütter wanted to win the top game, which deserves only a limited label due to the huge gap between the first and second in the Super League table. The Young Boys wanted to be the first to bring the champions to their knees – and they did.
With Hoarau as the spearhead of their game. Almost like a raid, the Bernese came over the Baslers at freezing temperatures on their plastic lawn. A wonderful, deep direct game by Kasim Nuhu in the run of left-back Jan Lecjaks tore open the right Basle defence, Michael Lang could not follow, and Tomas Vaclik deflected Lecjaks sharp input with his fingertips – but the ideal model for Hoarau.
He did not allow himself to be asked twice – such a ball is a fork breakfast for the penalty area routine. There were less than six minutes played and the champion in the back.
Rejection plays YB, not the FCB in the cards
Basel, in a 4-1-4-1 with the more offensive Zuffi formed, did not find a reasonable reaction to it. At least not on the last 30 meters, where much remained inaccurate and without emphasis. The Bernese, on the other hand, countered without frills and to their heart’s content. Only Thorsten Schick could have screwed the result higher, and then the hosts had to put up with a self-inflicted neck blow.
Red for an attempted assault: referee Harald Lechner (left) shows Kasim Adams Nuhu the red card. On the right Steve von Bergen. (Picture: Keystone/PETER SCHNEIDER)
Kasim Adams Nuhu saw the red card with the break whistle – the only card the good Austrian referee felt necessary in this game. After a foul by Renato Steffen, Nuhu tried to retaliate in kung fu style. He did not hit the ex-Berner, but his intention was enough to send him off.
Dilettant second goal against
What can often be observed is that the majority did not play the Basler, but YB into the cards. Urs Fischer’s team came out of the cabin more purposefully, but Birkir Bjarnason missed the equalizer in the 50th minute when he shot Steve von Bergen freestanding from ten meters. And in return, the Baslers conceded the 0:2 on a long ball from Bergen.
This counter goal in the final version seems dilettante because Vaclik and Marek Suchy both seemed to have defended the ball before Hoarau fell to his feet and netted it to his twelfth goal of the season.
There’s hardly a clumsier way: Marek Suchy and Tomas Vaclik can’t get the ball away, Guillaume Hoarau (left) thanks. (Picture: Keystone/PETER SCHNEIDER)
“Being one more man doesn’t mean you’re better or it’s easier,” said Urs Fischer, after the FCB’s tooth was pulled in the 17th round, “and with mistakes like 0:2 you make life difficult for yourself. Then you don’t have to be surprised if you lose.”
Hoarau takes his rushing exit
The fact that the Baslers approached again was partly due to the changes. Andraz Sporar and Mohamed Elyounoussi (for the once again insufficient Bjarnason) were invigorating elements. And the Norwegian provoked a handspenalty in the 75th minute, caused by Scott Sutter, which Matias Delgado safely used.
The swap of two more players in the 77th minute then proved to be decisive: Davide Callà on Basel’s side let himself be duped by the outstanding Lecjaks, and Kevin Mbabu scored a 3-1 header seconds after his substitution with a pike header.
Spearhead of the Bernese game, Goalgetter and spiritus rector: Guillaume Hoarau is celebrated by the Young Boys. (Picture: Keystone/MANUEL LOPEZ)
For the first time this season, the FCB conceded three goals – and there was no answer. Also because he currently has no player like Hoarau in his ranks. YB coach Adi Hütter’s substitution in injury time caused this Hoarau a glittering exit and standing ovations from the Bernese public at the Stade de Suisse. Xhaka could still get so excited: this Saturday was the evening of the Bernese and the evening of Guillaume Hoarau.
Hütter: “The team has crossed borders”
For the Young Boys this victory is a satisfaction, a confirmation on their way to the eleventh game without defeat. “The team has outnumbered the others,” praised Adi Hütter.
Colleague Fischer, on the other hand, set off home with “a funny, mixed feeling”. On the one hand, he had “seen his team well in the game” with the extra ball possession, but also lacked precision and consistency: “That was too little if you want to win at YB,” Fischer said, admitting the deserved success of the opponent straight away.
For the FCB it continues on Tuesday against Arsenal. A game in which at least one point is needed against the Premier League club to maintain vague hopes of a continuation of the international campaign. The team are not in an irresistible shape at the end of the first half, but the coach is not afraid of any negative impact from the neckstroke in Berne: “Maybe that’s what it takes to get a special performance against Arsenal”.