European football: Basel cruise as Lausanne crawl

Tschouga celebrates his first goal of the evening Keystone

Basel and Lausanne have both enjoyed first round victories in their UEFA Cup qualifying matches, but while Basel thrashed Folgore San Marino 5-1, Lausanne could only manage a 1-0 win over Cork City, thanks to a goal scored in the dying moments.

Basel’s new goalscoring wonder, Jean-Michel Tchouga, was back in the side after recovering from injury, and wasted little time adding to this season’s goal tally. The Cameroonian scored twice in the first half hour, ending any fears of a giant-killing by their amateur opponents.

Former Grasshoppers striker, André Muff, made it 3-0 shortly before the break. Italian midfielder Felix Magro then added two second half goals to effectively finish off Folgore’s chances of making it into the UEFA cup proper.

A goal for the homeside, scored 11 minutes from time by Zanetti, at least gave the Folgore fans something to cheer, but Basel will have no concerns about the second leg in two weeks’ time.

Lausanne will not be nearly so confident for their return leg. The Swiss side may even consider themselves fortunate to have come away with a one goal lead, after being reduced to 10 men in the 29th minute.

Olivier Baudry was sent off for unsporting behaviour. But just as it seemed that Lausanne would face the second leg in Ireland empty-handed, Cédric Horjak scored in the 89th minute to give Lausanne the edge for the return tie.

swissinfo with agencies