Alexander Frei scored a late penalty to give Basel a 2-1 win over the Champions League debutants Otelul Galati.
The Swiss side took a first-half lead through Fabian Frei before Marius Pena levelled for the Romanians just before the hour. Otelul were worth a point until Marco Streller was judged to have been fouled in the penalty area and Frei, the Swiss national team's record scorer, stepped forward to convert the penalty.
A dull opening half-hour had only one scoring chance ? when the Basel midfielder Granit Xhaka's low drive was parried by Branko Grahova ? and suggested that neither team will pose a threat to Manchester United and Benfica, the other teams in the group and the favourites to qualify.
The hosts went ahead five minutes after Xhaka's chance when Streller cleverly beat his man on the right and produced an inviting cross for Fabian Frei to head into the bottom corner.
Otelul fired a couple of warnings early in the second half as John Ibeh's shot was saved by Yann Sommer and Liviu Antal went close with a dipping long-range effort. They eventually levelled in the 58th minute when Antal's low shot was saved by Sommer and Pena followed up to slot home the rebound.
Otelul's Adrian Salageanu was sent off in the incident that led to the penalty while Basel's captain, Benjamin Huggel, was dismissed in the 86th minute for a second yellow card.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/sep/14/basel-otelul-galati-champions-league
No comments:
Post a Comment