A brief look at FC Basel

[hjperdeath 2,226]

FC Basel was founded in November 1893. Our home stadium is the Saint Jakob Park. The stadium was built in 2001 and replaced the Saint Jakob Stadium which itself was build for the 1954 World Cup. St. Jakob Park holds 38,000 people and is the biggest in Switzerland . It also hosted the 2008 EURO and is nominated for the 2020 EURO. Basel is a football crazy city and the whole city stands behind this club. We have won the Swiss Championship 16 times and have won it the past 4 seasons. Our greatest international successes are the top 16 round in 2012 against Bayern Munich, the semi finals in the Europa League last season against you guys and a quarter final appearance of the old Champions League in 1974 which we lost against Celtic 5-6 on agg.

Basel has a lot of good players, such as Schär, Diaz, Sommer, and Serey Die, though the most noticeable players are Stocker, Salah and Streller. Stocker is our left winger, a great midfielder. aged 24 and a Swiss national team player. Last season he created the most assists and even scored 8 in the Swiss league . He even scored against Tottenham as an example . He drives our game.

Salah is an Egyptian youth talent, who also was voted as the best youth talent in Africa in 2012. He’s our right winger, very quick and agile, probably one of the fastest players playing in Europe at the moment. His biggest weakness at the moment is how he acts in front of goal. Often his shots are misplaced and don’t hit the target, this has been slightly improving though.

The third key player is Streller, he’s one of the member's of the old guard and also our captain. His key features are his height and intelligence in knowing where to be at the right moment (1-0 goal against Man Utd. 2011 as an example). Last season he was our top scorer.

Though with our new striker Sio we have gained another great striker who can be played as a striker but also as a midfielder. He’s versatile enough play on the wings or in central midfield .

Mattias Delgado on the other hand, returns to the Swiss champions. He played with us from 2003-2006 and was one of the best players ever to play in Switzerland. He then went to Besiktas in Istanbul and became the captain of the team and was one of the best players in the Turkish league during his time there. After three years in Dubai he has now returned to his “home” and is willing to show his best whenever he plays, Though at the moment he isn't really on top form, but most fans are sure this will get better in the next few months.

Basel's previous lineup

Basel always oversleeps in the beginning of the season. Often we play bad and lose a lot of points compared to the leaders in our league. We had seasons where we were 15 points behind after 15 games and we get better later in season. Normally our first Champions League / Europa League game is our worst one (Galati in 2011, Cluj in 2010 thank god we aren’t playing Steaua in the first round ).

At the moment one of the biggest weaknesses of Basel is this oversleeping. We often start a game with a lot of pressure and we get that crucial first goal in, but then stop to play and have too often conceded another goal or two, due to which we end up losing or drawing the game. This season we went into the lead in every game in the league except for the last round against BSC Young Boys. We still won the game though, thanks to a great effort from all the players and two great goals in 2 minutes.

Biggest strength of us is that we have exceed expectations in European games against the top European clubs. In the past few years, Manchester United, Tottenham, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Bayern Munich all had problems in at least one game against us. We are definitely better in home games though. This is why I doubt we will oversleep, we normally play our best in such games.

Basel hasn’t won a game on the British Isle in decades, draws were the best results.

Most fans are hoping for a point at Stamford Bridge but know that this isn’t a game we have to win or even get a point. We see Schalke and Steaua as our biggest threat and rivals for the 2nd and 3rd place in this group.

All the best for tomorrow and in the Premier League this year. If there are any more questions don't hesitate to tweet to me

Kind regards

Chris Wachtler

Twitter at : @FCBasel_English

A huge thank you to Chris for giving us a good summary on FC Basel and what we can expect from them. Good luck to you guys in the Swiss League as well and come wednesday, may the best team win !

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[CHOULO19 24,332]

Bump.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Guys don't hesitate to follow him, decent lad.