Introducing opponents: Basel

The quarterfinal will be played as a single-leg tie. It will take place at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen and kick off at 22:00 Kyiv time on August 11.

Opponents

Basel was founded in 1893 and represents the city of the same name located in the northwest of Switzerland. The club claimed 20 league titles, currently being the second best in its country for the number of titles. For the last time, the Red-and-Blues won gold medals back in 2017, after which they beat Young Boys three times. In 2018, the former coach of Austria national team Marcel Koller was appointed head coach of Basel.

European competition path

Basel finished the 2018/19 Super League campaign in the second spot and won a berth to the Champions League where they made it past the Dutch PSV, but were kncked out by the Austrian LASK. Thus, the Swiss got into the UEFA Europa League group stage. There, their opponents were Getafe, Krasnodar and Trabzonspor. Basel secured the top spot in the quartet, twice beating the strong Spaniards and once defeating both the Russians and the Turks, enjoying all home wins.

In the Round of 32, Basel's rivals were Cyprus-based APOEL. They advanced to the next round more than confidently by winning 3-0 away and 1-0 at home. Interestingly, in the Round of 16, the Swiss also played their first leg vs Eintracht Frankfurt away and claimed a major 3-0 defeat, also winning 1-0 in the second leg. In the current Europa League campaign, the team’s top scorer is midfielder Fabian Frei (5 goals).

Recent bronze medals

In the 2019/20 league, Basel finished third. In addition to the Young Boys, our opponents were beaten by St. Gallen who have not climbed so high for a long time. The silver and bronze medalists from Switzerland will start in different rounds of the Europa League qualifying stage. As for Basel's competitive path, the team have 18 wins, 8 draws and 10 defeats, with the smallest number of conceded goals in the league - 38. The Red-and-Blues kept 14 clean sheets. And in late July, they had goals galore vs Lugano (4-4).

Squad

Basel have one of the youngest squads in the Swiss Super League. The 22-year-old Brazilian Arthur Cabral scored 14 goals and became the third best league scorer in his debut season with the club: he was loaned out by Palmeiras and was bought out by Basel this summer. Kemal Ademi has just one goal less (13). But with all the abundance of young players on the list, the leaders are still more experienced performers: 31-year-old Valentin Stocker and Fabian Frei. The 25-year-old attacking midfielder Samuele Campo is also in good shape – he netted goals against Young Boys, Servette and St. Gallen and provided 3 assists in July.