Cup madness in Nyon Shaqiri and Hitz become Basel's penalty heroes in a crazy final phase

FC Basel prevail in extra time in an incredible Cup drama against Nyon. Defending champions Servette and Lucerne, on the other hand, were defeated in the second round of the Cup by Challenge League teams Schaffhausen and Aarau.

Sunday's games

With his first goal since his return, Xherdan Shaqiri led FC Basel into the round of 16. However, the Super League side needed a large portion of nerves to beat Stade Nyonnais from the Challenge League 1-0 after extra time. It was not until the 123rd minute that Shaqiri provided the redemption with a penalty, which he took himself. Basel almost let the lead slip from their grasp. Just seconds after the opening goal, referee Luca Cibelli pointed to the spot at the other end. However, Marwin Hitz saved Franck Koré's attempt and saved the favorites from going into a penalty shoot-out. After the game, Hitz said in the SRF interview: "We fought through, we overcame difficult situations and proved as a team that we can also hold our own in a so-called 'crap game'."

The hosts from Lake Geneva caused FC Basel a lot of trouble, especially in the first half. In the second half, Fabio Celestini's team then failed several times. The scene in the 70th minute, when Benjamin Kololli was unable to put the ball in the empty net after a goalkeeping error, is representative of this.

Lucerne were the second team from the Super League to suffer on Sunday afternoon. The tragic figure was Donat Rrudhani, of all people, who was under contract with FC Aarau from 2019 to 2022. In the 70th minute, the 25-year-old from Lucerne was shown a yellow card for a foul, doing his team a disservice. The lower-ranked side, who got into the game better in the second half, were given further momentum by the sending-off and took advantage of their numerical superiority eight minutes before the end. Yannick Touré headed home a cross from Nikola Gjorgjev.

Lucerne came very close to equalizing again with the last action of the game. However, Marvin Hübel in the Aarau goal held on to the win and secured revenge for the loss in the 2021 Cup semi-final. Luzern, on the other hand, had to concede to a lower-ranked team, as they did last year. In last year's Cup campaign, Mario Frick's team lost to Delémont from the Promotion League in the round of 16.

Schaffhausen pulled off a surprise in the 2nd round of the Swiss Cup. The team from the Challenge League knocked defending champions Servette out of the competition 2:1.

Everything went as expected at the start of the match. The favorites from Geneva took the lead in the 11th minute through Jérémy Guillemenot. The Super League leaders then skilfully managed their lead.

The home team only got into the game better after the break. However, it took the kind help of the French-speaking Swiss to bring Ciriaco Sforza's team back into the game. First, goalkeeper Joel Mall deflected a sharp cross from Gabriele De Donno onto the leg of Yoan Severin, from where the ball rolled into the net. Guillemenot was then sent off after an hour and a second caution for a foul - a harsh decision by referee Anojen Kanagasingam.

Both teams then had chances to score the winner. Marc Giger scored with a header five minutes before the end to give the underdogs the big surprise and make it 2:1.