FC Luzern 2 AC Bellinzona 0

Only days after playing the annoying ‘French’ from FC Sion we get a visit from a team of stylish ‘Italians’.  Bad news was that there were not as many hairbands in their team as last year andthat their new away shirts had a interesting beige coffee colour.

Stylish italians

The linguistic and cultural diversity is one of the best thing about the Swiss league. Bellinzona are not doing that well, at the moment they are second to last. As they are the only Ticino team in the league it would be good if they could stay up.

Great conditions with a sunny afternoon at the Gersag. Today with big gaping holes in the main stand, the lowest home attendance of the season with 6881 spectators. This was the first game I have been to where we really expected to win, anything else would have been a major setback.

Luzern did play as if they knew they were superior. Bellinzona threatened to score several times but their chances came after careless Luzern play and not because the guests were in aby way the better team.  Only a couple of minutes into the game Bellinzona hits the post after a Luzern defender fails to clear the ball. Soon after Yakin almost scores with a freekick that the Bellinzona goalkeeper somehow manages to fumble to a corner. A few minutes later Ferreira scores with his stomach(!) though the referee incorrectly disallowed the goal and even carded the unlucky Portuguese. This is the second game in a row at the Gersag where the quality of refereeing has been way off the mark.

Lustenberger then sets up Paiva with a great cross, Paiva somehow manages to put the ball 5 meters above the goal. Typical of his season so far, well placed to receive the cross but clearly lacking the finishing touch. Hopefully we will soon see the Paiva we had last season again. Just before halftime Bellinzona’s Sermeter hits the crossbar with a beautifully struck volley.

Halftime comes and even with 0-0 and some good chances for the visitors  it somehow feels as if it’s our day, this is a game we will win.

With the second half only a minute old Yakin hits a great freekick from well outside the box, it dips down near the Bellinzona penalty spot. Under pressure from Ianu defender Mangiarratti heads the ball into his own net. 1-0 Luzern.

Then Veskovac gets sent off. I have no idea why – a Bellinzona player goes down mortally wounded, apparenlty from an elbow though its hard to say what really happened as even the TV cameras missed the incident. The Luzern players protests wildly but once the red card is out it’s not much you can do and off he goes.

We now have to defend, and we do so rather well, especially thanks to a superb Zibung. First with a fantastic reaction save on another good shot from Sermeter and then again he somehow manages to stretch far enough to save a header from former Luzern player Lustrinelli. Luzern fights hard all the way to the end to keep the lead, has to be said that the sending off made a reasonably easy task quite a lot harder.

The referees assistant finally holds up his little electronic sign, showing six minutes of added time.

In the 96th Yakin again delivers an excellent freekick to substitute Christophe Lambert who slides in and scores with the last kick of the game.

Incredible this was the first game of the season where we kept a clean sheet. We really have to thank Mr  Zibung and his friends Mr Goalpost and Mr Crossbar for three fresh points.

We are now third in the league, and significantly we are 13 points above the relegation spot.  Next game is away against Grasshoppers, they have hit form recently so it will not be easy.