Basel’s Champions League hopes dashed

Basel were unable to respond to Bremen's three goals Keystone

After beating Werder Bremen 2-1 on the first leg, FC Basel have failed to qualify for the European football Champions League with a 3-0 defeat in Bremen.

Basel appeared strong in the goalless first half but it all ended for the Swiss side with three Bremen goals in eight minutes in the second half.

Klasnic scored his first goal of the night in the 65th minute, followed by another in the 73rd minute. In between, his team mate Borowski scored a penalty in the 68th minute.

For the first hour, Basel held out well against the German side but two defensive errors cost them dearly and gave Bremen control of the game.

Bremen also made some errors, with Micoud missing a penalty in the first half. Klose was sent off with 11 minutes to go but Bremen held on comfortably.

End of the road for Basel

The defeat ended hopes of a second Swiss team joining the heavyweights of European football in this season’s Champions League. FC Thun secured their place in the third group by beating Malmö at home on Tuesday.

Thun, a humble club with an annual budget of only SFr5 million ($3.9 million), beat the Swedish champions 3-0 in the second leg of their third-round qualifying match in Bern.

Three years ago Basel became the first Swiss team to make it to the group stage of the Champions League. But last year they were knocked out by Inter Milan and Wednesday night saw another bitter disappointment for the team.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

The 32 teams in the Champions League will be divided into eight groups of four on August 25th at 16.00 in Monaco.

Teams from the same country can’t meet each other in the group phase. One exception is the last year’s champions Liverpool.