User:Huligan0/2013–14 FC Basel season

The 2013–14 FC Basel season is the 121st season in club history and the club's 19th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football. Basel are the reigning Super League champions. They started their season with various warm-up matches against teams from Switzerland, Serbia and Germany. Their 2013–14 Swiss Super League season began on 13 July with the home tie against FC Aarau and after the first six rounds they occupied just the fourth position in the league table, six points behind the leader Young Boys Bern. Beating the Young Boys in the seventh round, Basel started a run of 29 league games without defeat. At the end of the season Basel won the league championship for the fifth time in a row. They started in the 2013–14 Swiss Cup first round on 17 August with the away game against BSC Old Boys. Beating the Old Boy (1-0 after extra time) and after beating Münsingen 1–0 in the next round, they faced Tuggen in the third round, winning 3–1. In the quarterfinals they played in against FC Le Mont, winning 6–1 and qualified for a semifinal home tie in St. Jakob-Park against Luzern on 26 March. They reached the final, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.

Basel's 2013–14 UEFA Champions League season started on 30 July 2013 in the third qualifying round with the tie in St. Jakob-Park against Maccabi Tel Aviv. After defeating Maccabi, they defeated Ludogorets Razgrad in the play-off round and qualified for the group stage. There they were drawn into Group E together with Chelsea, Schalke 04 and Steaua București. The group stage for Basel began on 18 September with the away game in Stamford Bridge where they notched a 2–1 win over Chelsea. Basel finished in third position in the league table and thus they qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League round of 32. Here the eliminated Maccabi Tel Aviv and in the round of 16 they beat Red Bull Salzburg thus advancing to the quarter-finals but here they were knocked-out by Valencia.

Europa League
In the knockout phase of the Europa League Basel were drawn against the team that they eliminated during the Champions League qualification Maccabi Tel Aviv. The away tie scheduled for 20 February, and the second leg for 27 February 2014. Their new aim was to reach at least the next round. Basel drew the Europa League away tie in the Bloomfield Stadium 0-0 and won the home tie 3-0, qualifying for the round of 16 against Red Bull Salzburg. The home tie ended in a goalless draw. But the away tie was won 2-1 despite the fact that Marek Suchý received the red card after just nine minutes and that Salzburg scored the first goal after twenty-two minutes, thanks to goals scored by Marco Streller and Gastón Sauro in the second half.