FC Basel loses first game under Ludovic Magnin – Young Boys get off to a perfect start

(sda) Young Boys are announcing their title ambitions at the season opener. Christian Fassnacht and Darian Males ensure a perfect start in the 3-1 victory against an early-depleted Servette in the top match of the first Super League round.

A red card against Servette's Bradley Mazikou for a last-minute foul paved the way for Young Boys after eight minutes. Fassnacht converted the resulting penalty to give them the lead, and Males doubled his lead four minutes later with a well-placed low shot from a tight angle. Alan Virginius, coming off the bench, rounded off the scoring with a 3-1 goal in the 84th minute. Mazikou had brought Males down in the penalty area with a foul from behind. As a result, the visitors played almost the entire match with a man down.

Things could have gotten nasty for Servette in the 3-0 game. But after Joel Monteiro's apparent 3-0 goal in the 17th minute was disallowed for a handball, new Geneva striker Samuel Mraz brought Servette back within two minutes with a header out of nowhere (32').

Coach Thomas Häberli's team, weakened by the departures of Dereck Kutesa, Keigo Tsunemoto, and Enzo Crivelli, couldn't manage more than a goal. Males almost added another goal for YB before the break, but chipped the ball onto the post. After the break, the home team focused on defending. Bern initially missed a chance to increase the lead, but conceded little to nothing at the back.

For Fassnacht, with twelve goals in 2025 the second best Super League scorer of the calendar year behind Xherdan Shaqiri (13), it was the 80th goal in the Super League - a mark that only Mauro Lustrinelli, Marco Streller, Marco Schneuwly, Guillaume Hoarau and Jean-Pierre Nsame have achieved besides him.

Swiss football champions FC Basel began the new Super League season with a defeat. Basel lost 2-1 to St. Gallen on Saturday evening in coach Ludovic Magnin's debut match. Willem Geubbels and Lukas Görtler turned the game around for St. Gallen in the second half. Before halftime, Görtler's own goal following a corner had given FCB a comfortable lead.

In front of nearly 20,000 spectators, St. Gallen had already vehemently challenged the champions in front of their own fans before halftime. Basel, featuring new signings Keigo Tsunemoto and Koba Koindredi, repeatedly faltered. Marwin Hitz had to make two saves from Geubbels, and Hugo Vandermersch also hit the crossbar after a corner. Nicolas Vouilloz was also fortunate not to be sent off for a kick to the groin from Vandermersch.

In Basel's attack, Albian Ajeti and Kevin Carlos, who came on after the hour mark, lacked the necessary efficiency. Basel's key player Xherdan Shaqiri also failed to develop to the same extent as he did in his outstanding last season.

The new coach also started with a defeat at Grasshoppers. The Zurich team, newly coached by Austrian Gerald Scheiblehner and particularly energetic in the first half, lost 3-2 at home to FC Luzern after twice taking the lead.

Sion won its opening match against FC Zurich 3-2 on Friday evening thanks to three goals after the 80th minute. Portuguese defender Lucas Manuel Silva Ferreira, who had been promoted from the reserve team, settled the match with the winner in the 69th minute. After just over an hour, the 18-year-old striker needed just six minutes to score his first goal in his first Super League game.

Grasshoppers thus missed the opportunity to reward themselves for a promising performance. They had taken the lead twice: in the 5th minute with a penalty converted by Nikolas Muci, who was fouled, and after half an hour with a spectacular first goal from the eye-catching new striker Luke Plange.

Grasshoppers' failure to secure the win was primarily due to coordination issues in defense. The 1-1 tie came when Kevin Spadanuda, following a Pascal Loretz goal kick, was able to run completely clear into the penalty area and set up Matteo Di Giusto. In the end, it wasn't new GC players who made the difference, but two Lucerne debutants.