Swiss teams impress in Europe

Reigning Swiss champions Grasshoppers Zurich already have one foot in the competition’s third round after beating Dutch side FC Twente 4-1 in Thursday’s home leg.

Uruguayan striker Richard Nuñez was once again the Grasshoppers hero, scoring three of the team’s goals as well as setting up Mladen Petric for the other.

An impressive free kick goal from Twente’s Sjaak Polak, blasted past Stephan Huber from 30 metres out gave the Dutch side a small ray of hope for the return match in two weeks time.

“I was certainly happy about the fourth goal which should help us keep calm ahead of the match in Holland. But we will still have to be careful there,” warned Grasshoppers coach Hans-Peter Zaugg.

St Gallen stun Freiburg

Former Swiss champions St Gallen appeared to be on the brink of an encouraging away draw against German Bundesliga side Freiburg on Thursday. But then with 93 minutes played and after some sustained pressure from the home team, St Gallen were able to grab an unexpected and potentially decisive goal.

Midfielder Reto Zanni, who had played impressively throughout the game, was the man who supplied the key pass, picking out Patrick Mokoena who after two attempts was able to slip the ball past giant Freiburg keeper Richard Golz.

As the St Gallen players celebrated and the German fans began to whistle, the two-metre tall Golz simply sat in his goalmouth, staring in disbelief.

A draw in Grasshoppers’ Hardturm stadium next month would now be enough to see St Gallen through to the second round, although coach Marcel Koller quickly warned (with more cause perhaps than his Grasshoppers counterpart) that the tie is far from over.

Servette surprise Zaragoza

Servette Geneva completed a memorable night for Swiss football with an unexpected away draw in the stadium of Spanish Primera Liga club Real Zaragoza.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of Thursday’s tie with the north Spanish giants was that the Swiss team had the best of the chances to win the match.

But despite being gifted several opportunities by a surprisingly lax Zaragoza defence, Nigerian forward Wilson Oruma and his Swiss international strike partner Alex Frei were unable to make it onto the scoresheet. Both came agonisingly close, Oruma hitting the Spanish goalpost before Frei saw a shot narrowly cleared off the line.

Bidding to make their first appearance in the UEFA Cup third round in almost 20 years, Lucien Favre’s team will have to turn their potential into goals when the two sides meet again in Geneva. But at least Thursday’s performance should go a long way to altering Servette’s underdog image in this second round tie.

swissinfo with agencies