The first English week of 2025 will face St. Gallen and Lugano on Wednesday at 8:30 pm. The other big match of day number 22 and that is Basel-Lucerne is scheduled for Thursday.
TUSSLE AROUND THE LINE
The fight to get into the top six is getting tighter and tighter as the weeks go by. If at the top Lugano, Basel and Lucerne have dug a small ditch with the fourth (Servette) around the fatigue line are strenuously fighting Lausanne (31 points), Zurich 30, St. Gallen 29 and YB 28.
ONE LOSS AT HOME
The Eastern Swiss team, which was coming off four positive results (including wins against Lausanne and Zurich), was defeated 2-0 in Lucerne on Sunday. But it was at the Kybunpark, in front of their own very warm fans, that the green-and-whites proved solid by getting four wins, five draws and only one defeat. This was on the seventh day (Sept. 21, 2024) against Lucerne. (2-3 the result).
EVEN STRONGER ATTACK.
The attack remains one of the best performing in Super League and was further reinforced during the winter break with the signing of an old acquaintance of our soccer namely Jean Pierre Nsame. The Cameroon-born French forward had already played with the shirts of Servette (31 appearances and 23 goals) and YB (242 with 140 goals) before embarking on unhappy experiences abroad in Venice, Como and Warsaw. Nsame made his debut three days ago in Lucerne, subbing in at 56′ for Thoma. In recent hours the club also picked up 26-year-old midfielder Lukas Daschner from Bochum on a loan deal.
NSAME 19 GOALS IN 18 CHALLENGES
Nsame is something of a black beast of the Lugano defense. He has faced it on 18 occasions scoring an impressive 19 goals. Almost a record. He had come up with a brace on Sept. 10, 2017, and last made his mark with two more goals in the same game, again in a YB jersey, six years later.
GEUBBELS BEST SCORER
St. Gallen's top scorer so far is Willem Geubbels who arrived from Monaco in January 2023 and has scored 20 goals in 76 appearances. This year he is already up to 7 plus 8 assists.
GOERTLER SOUL OF SG
The most representative man in the team, however, remains captain Lukas Görtler, a 30-year-old with solid experience in the Bundesliga. In the St. Gallen jersey he has 198 present to his credit with 36 goals and 38 assists. Lugano is the opponent he has faced the most (22 matches) with a tally of seven wins, six draws, nine defeats and four goals scored.
HCL BUDGET
Since Lugano returned to the top league in 2015, the two sides have clashed 38 times. The HCLers have prevailed on 19 occasions, 8 draws and 11 Confederate victories. As well in the St. Gallen stadium, it has been Bottani and co. who have prevailed on 8 occasions, with 5 draws and as many victories by the hosts.
BALANCE FOR CROSSES-TWISTS
Coach Croci-Torti has faced St. Gallen on thirteen occasions including the Swiss Cup final won in 2022. In the league, the situation is one of great balance with four wins, as many draws and defeats.
ONE PRECEDENT FOR MAASSEN
Enrico Maassen has been on the St. Gallen bench since Jan. 1, 2024, replacing Peter Zeidler who moved to Bochum but was relieved of his duties after seven games. Maassen out of 36 games has won 14, seven in the league, four in European qualifiers, one in the Conference League and two in the Swiss Cup. With Lugano he has only one previous match the game played in Cornaredo in early September and ended on one to one (goals by Görtler and Przybylko).
THREE DISQUALIFIED
For Wednesday night's match there will be three players disqualified having reached the critical number of yellow cards. They are Mattia Zanotti on the Lugano side and defender Stanic and trequartista Thoma among the Confederates.
Steffen and Przybylko close to return
The follow-up MRI to which Kacper Przybylko underwent showed a marked improvement over the initial picture, and therefore the player - who has been out of action for a couple of weeks - will be able to resume training with the team as early as this week.
As for Renato Steffen, he continues his rehabilitation protocol for the low-grade adductor injury in his left thigh that has plagued him for the past few days. He is expected to return to training on the field on Thursday, possibly to be among the squad on Saturday for FC Lugano-Grasshopper Club Zürich (Cornaredo, 6 p.m.).
Injured just under four weeks ago (Jan. 10), Martim Marques continues along his rehabilitation path according to schedule. The Portuguese player still needs about 20 days to be able to return to available
EQUALITY IN FOULS NOT YELLOWS
Speaking of cautions, Lugano players have received 55 so far compared to 44 for their opponents. Identical is the number of fouls committed: 241.