User:Huligan0/2007–08 FC Basel season

FC Basel started the season, the 115th season in their existence and 13th consecutive in the top flight of Swiss football, with various warm-up matches against Swiss lower league teams as well as Austrian Bundesliga, German Bundesliga, Scottish Premier League and French Ligue 1 clubs. FCB were looking to win the Swiss championship title for the first time since 2005 and regain the cup title that they won the year before. They also had the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Cup.

Overview
At the beginning of the 2007–08 season, FC Basel strengthened their team by signing Swiss internationalists Benjamin Huggel from Eintracht Frankfurt, Marco Streller from VfB Stuttgart and David Degen on loan from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Portuguese professional Carlitos transferred from Benfica in for an estimated €1.5 million (CHF 1,610,000). Five young talents were brought up from the Under-21 team. In the other direction, fans' favourites Ivan Rakitić transferred to FC Schalke 04 (for an estimated CHF 4,830,000) and Mladen Petrić joined Borussia Dortmund (for an estimated CHF 5,635,000). The influential defender Boris Smiljanić returned to his former club Grasshopper-Club Zürich.

During the Winter break the highly rated Switzerland U-21 defender Beg Ferati arrived at St. Jakob-Park from feeder club FC Concordia Basel on a three-and-a-half-year contract. He was joined by midfielder Marko Perović from Red Star Belgrade and veteran striker Vratislav Lokvenc joined on loan from Red Bull Salzburg. Also during the Winter break Caicedo transferred to Manchester City on a four-and-a-half year deal with a £5.2 million transfer fee (CHF 10 million), which made his sale one of the highest transfers in the history of the Swiss League.

Domestic League
Basel's priority aim for the season was to win the league championship. The Swiss Super League season began on 22 Juli 2007. Basel's first game was at home to FC Zürich which was won 1–0. In the fourth and sixth round of the championship Basel suffered two defeats, against BSC Young Boys and Grasshopper Club and slid down to the fourth position in the league table. It took them two months before they climbed back to the leading position. Basel stayed at the top of the table until virtually the end of the championship, slipping to second position twice, but they were strong enough to regain the lead. Basel won the Swiss Super League for the first time since 2005 on the 10 May 2008 at St. Jakob-Park after a 2-0 win over their main title threats BSC Young Boys.

The championship decision was made in the last game of the season. Basel needed only a point from the match to win the Championship, however if Young Boys won then they would have become champions. This was exactly the same situation as the end of the 2005/06 season, then the final match was between Basel and FC Zürich then. The painful memories of losing the league on the last day of the season in 2006 and the resulting 2006 Basel hooligan incident seemed to spur FCB on. Basel took an early lead through Valentin Stocker and a second goal scored by Marco Streller just a few minutes later wrapped up the victory well before half time.

Domestic Cup
Basel's clear aim for the Swiss Cup was to retain the title that they had won the year before. FC Basel entered the into the Swiss Cup 2007–08 in the round of 64 on 19 September 2007 and were paired away against FC Léchelles who they beat 9-0. They then faced SC Binningen away from home on 20 October. Basel won the match 6-1. They then faced a much tougher test in the third round, in the form of Grasshopper-Club Zürich at the Letzigrund, on 25 October but still won 1-0. On 15 December Stade Nyonnais travelled to St. Jakob-Park for the Quarter-final, only to lose 2-0, with both goals coming from Eren Derdiyok. The Semi-final saw Basel beat FC Thun 1-0 on 27 February 2008. FC Basel won the Swiss Cup for the second consecutive season after beating second-tier side AC Bellinzona 4-1 at St. Jakob-Park on Sunday 6 April. Eren Derdiyok gave Basel the lead in the first half before Bellinzona equalised through Christian Pouga in the second. Daniel Majstorović restored the lead for Basel with a header and Swiss internationalists Marco Streller and Benjamin Huggel scored one goal each to make the final scoreline 4-1 in Basel's favour.

Europe
Because Basel entered the 2007–08 UEFA Cup in the second qualifying round, their aim was to reach the group stage. Basel faced a tough opponent in the form of SV Mattersburg of Austria. Basel won the tie off with a 4-0 away win after a 2-1 victory at St. Jakob-Park. In the next round Basel were drawn against Bosnian minnows FK Sarajevo in the first round, a tie that Basel won 8-1 on aggregate. Basel were then drawn into a 'death group' (Group D) alongside SK Brann, NK Dinamo Zagreb, Hamburger SV and Stade Rennais FC, all of which were ranked within the top 3 of their own leagues at the start of the stage.

Due to the fact that they had reached the group satge their aim was modified and was set as to remain in the competition over the winter break. Basel won their first UEFA Cup group game against Rennes at home 1-0 thanks to a Marco Streller header. Their next game was away to Dinamo Zagreb in which Basel earned a valuable away point thanks to on form goalkeeper Franco Costanzo who kept the game at 0-0 for 90 minutes. They then faced Brann at St. Jakob-Park where they won 1-0 through a Carlitos free-kick and were highly praised for playing attractive and flowing football. Basel then went to Germany to face Hamburg at the HSH Nordbank Arena where they were fortunate to come away with a 1-1 draw. The goals courtesy of the two captains Basle's Ivan Ergić and Hamburg's Ivica Olić. Basel then faced Sporting Clube de Portugal in the round of 32 after qualifying in second position in the group alongside 1st placed Hamburg and 3rd placed Brann. Sporting Lisbon finished third in their group in the UEFA Champions League, which is why they were dropped into the UEFA Cup. The first leg took place on the 13th of February in Lisbon where the first choice goalkeeper, Franco Costanzo, suffered an injured and Basel lost 2-0. The second leg did not fair any better for Basel. Costanzo was still injured and Basel lost 3-0 on the 21 February in the home match, resulting in them being knocked out.

This rounded off a highly successful season for Basel as they conquered on the domestic front, winning both the Swiss Super League and Swiss Cup, and reaching the last 32 of the UEFA Cup. Next season they will have the opportunity to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Multiple Nationality

 * 1  Franco Costanzo
 * 5  Daniel Majstorović
 * 9  Marko Perović
 * 11  Scott Chipperfield
 * 18  Louis Crayton
 * 22  Ivan Ergić
 * 24  Cabral
 * 28  Beg Ferati
 * 31  Eren Derdiyok

Swiss Super League 2007–08
for main article, see 2007–08 Swiss Super League

Swiss Cup 2007–08
for main article, see Swiss Cup 2007–08

UEFA Cup 2007–08
For more information, see 2007–08 UEFA Cup

Second qualifying round
For more information, see 2007–08 UEFA Cup qualifying rounds

Basel win 6-1 on aggregate

Knockout stage
Sporting won 5–0 on aggregate.

Overall
Basel participated in the following major competitions: the Swiss Super League, the Swiss Cup and the UEFA Cup.

Total Goalscorers
Updated to games played 10 May 2008

Swiss Super League Goalscorers/Assists
Updated to games played 10 May 2008

Swiss Cup Goalscorers
Updated to games played 6 April 2008

European Goalscorers
Updated to games played 21 February 2008

Honours and awards

 * Swiss League Champions 2007-08
 * Swiss Cup Champions 2007-08
 * Swiss Youngster of the Year 2007/08 - Eren Derdiyok
 * Swiss Coach of the Year 2007/08 - Christian Gross