Lugano hold Basel to 1-1 draw

Lugano's top scorer, Christian Gimenez (left), scored the first goal of Sunday's match swissinfo.ch

In a battle between two teams anxious to move towards the top of the division, Lugano and Basel proved there was little to separate them when Sunday's tie ended in a 1-1 draw.

Lugano looked like they might steal the advantage over their league rivals after a goal from Gimenez in the ninth minute, but Basel’s Hakan Yakin responded with an equaliser just before half time.

If there was little to separate the two teams on the pitch, they remain equally close together in the league standings. Sunday’s result means Lugano remain in third position with 35 points.

Just one point now separates them from fourth-placed Basel.

Elsewhere in the football league, defending champions St Gallen suffered a setback on Saturday in their bid to retain the title after losing away to sixth-placed Lausanne, 2-0.

Despite the defeat, St Gallen retain their lead at the top of the table, where they were joined on Friday night by rivals Grasshoppers Zurich.

The Grasshoppers, who stole a thrilling 4-2 victory over city rivals FC Zurich on Friday, remain level on points with St Gallen. Victory against Lausanne would have cemented St Gallen’s lead and dampened the Grasshoppers’ hopes of stealing the title from them.

In Saturday’s other league tie, Servette drew at home to Sion, 2-2.

A penalty courtesy of Wolf in the 59th minute momentarily put Servette in the lead. But Sion, currently languishing at the bottom of the table, fought back to draw level with a superb second goal from man-of-the-match Poueys.

swissinfo with agencies