“Iceated” the Blue Coast and Basel returned to the semi-finals!

Basel returned to the European top four. The Swiss defeated Nice 2-1 (1-1) in extra time in Cote d’Azur in their Europa Conference League quarter-final second leg, overturning a 2-2 first-leg draw at St. Jakob last Thursday, to qualify in the semi-finals of the competition, where they will face Fiorentina, 11 and 18 May, returning to the top four of European competition for the first time since 2020 and their participation in the Europa League then.

The “Nishua” took the lead with Lambord, but Augustin and Onuhu brought the upset.

The match

“Nissois” entered the pitch very strongly and saw a goal correctly disallowed for offside in the first five minutes by Lambord. But, in the 9th minute, the French striker took advantage of the nice combination and the nice ball to Ramsey and, from inside the area, made it 1-0 with a shot. He continued to waste chances along with the rest of the hosts’ attacking midfielders, with the Swiss threatening just once in the entire first 45 minutes.

Nice entered the pitch strongly in the second half and in the 59th minute VAR gave them a penalty back. The many changes in the 75′ disorganized the players of the French team and the tempo dropped sharply. Thus, in the 83′, Diouf warned the home team and in the 86′, after a foul, Calafiori gave an assist with his head to Augustin who made it 1-1 with a direct volley from the area. In the 88th minute, Edoi missed a chance to make it 1-2 and the match went to extra time.

The “Nissu” entered more determined at the start of the extra half hour and missed two chances to make it 2-1. Thus, the “coolness” came in the 98th minute, when, after a full-time phase, Males made the cross and Onouhou made it 1-2 with a header. Xhaka and Ramsey missed the last good chances in the first half on either side.

In the 110th minute, Males with a direct free kick forced Schmeichel into an impressive intervention, with the Swiss slowly “freezing” the pace and not creating any significant phase in front of the two goals, so the former Swiss champions returned after three four years of European organization.