The Brack Super League enters its final week, and FC Lugano heads into it buoyed by strong results, consistency and a league table that remains wide open. On Sunday 10 May at 2.00 pm, the bianconeri host FC St. Gallen 1879 at Cornaredo on matchday 36 – the third in the Championship Group – for a head-to-head clash that carries significant weight in the race for European qualification.
Mattia Croci-Torti’s side’s recent form speaks of a solid and consistent run. Following the away win at FC Thun, decided by Alioski’s penalty in stoppage time, came a 1-0 victory against BSC Young Boys, secured by Renato Steffen in the closing stages. Two victories that unfolded differently but were similar in nature: both were built within evenly matched games, both ended without conceding a goal. This consistency has taken the bianconeri to four consecutive wins, all 1-0, extending a positive run that has confirmed the team’s solidity at the most crucial moment of the season.
The league table makes Sunday’s clash all the more significant. Lugano and St. Gallen go into the head-to-head on level points, with the Biancoverdi currently ahead on goal difference (+8). Behind them, FC Sion, their opponents in six days’ time, remain five points adrift, in a title race where every match is decisive.
The first hurdle between now and the end, however, is a team that Croci-Torti knows well and one that Lugano have yet to beat this season. In the three previous encounters, there have been two defeats and a draw, the last of which came in mid-March at the kybunpark following the postponement due to snow of the match originally scheduled a few days earlier. The first meeting at Cornaredo had also been affected by bad weather, with the match suspended due to rain and subsequently rescheduled. It is, therefore, a special fixture, not least because of how it has unfolded over the course of the season.
CROCI-TORTI: ‘WE NEED TO GO THE EXTRA MILE TO BEAT ST. GALLEN’ ‘St
. Gallen are a team with great character, tenacious, who never give up and play with great intensity,’ explained Croci-Torti at a press conference. “We have a lot of respect for them. They’re a team at the top of Swiss football, just as we have been for years, and we need to do something extra to get the better of them, because we haven’t managed to beat them yet this year.”
The Biancoverdi arrive at Cornaredo following their defeat to Sion, a result that mathematically handed the title to FC Thun and brought an end to a long run of good form. Before that slip-up, Enrico Maaßen’s side hadn’t lost since January and had built a second half of the season marked by great consistency, a run also reflected in their Swiss Cup campaign. The final against FC Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy is scheduled in two weeks’ time, but according to Croci-Torti, this won’t change the opponents’ approach to Sunday’s match.
“When you’re playing a Cup final, it’s always on your mind,” noted the Bianconeri coach. “However, following their latest result, St. Gallen are back in the race for Europe and cannot afford to focus solely on the final. We shouldn’t expect a St. Gallen side with their minds elsewhere: they’ll be a team looking to secure their European spot as soon as possible.”
In such a closely contested match, the margin of victory may well come down to the finer details. Croci-Torti made this point clear, attributing the bianconeri’s current form not only to their organisation but also to the mental edge that has characterised their recent performances. “Organisation, discipline and the finer details often make the difference, but what tips the balance is always the mental aspect, the hunger. At the moment, we’re showing we’re hungrier than our opponents, and that’s how it needs to be on Sunday too. We’re both playing for a place in Europe, so we’ll have the same hunger, but we’ll need to take it one step further.”
ZANOTTI: ‘IT’S A SPECIAL MATCH FOR ME, BUT THE THREE POINTS ARE WHAT MATTER’
It will also be a special match for Mattia Zanotti, a former St. Gallen player and now one of the key figures in Lugano’s campaign. The defender spent a crucial period of his development in St. Gallen and on Sunday he will face a team and an environment to which he remains attached, whilst remaining fully focused on Lugano’s objective.
“It’s always a special match,” said Zanotti. “I have friends there who will always be close to my heart. But I won’t let my emotions get the better of me: I just think we need to try and take home the three points, because they would be crucial.”
Three crucial points for the league table and for the bianconeri’s end-of-season campaign, in a match that will also hold special significance for the home crowd: it will, in fact, be the penultimate fixture in Cornaredo’s history before the permanent move to the AIL Arena. A transition that inevitably adds emotion to a match already important for the present, in which the team and fans can experience together one of the last great Sundays at the historic Bianconeri ground.
“We hope that Cornaredo turns out in force on Sunday and gets behind us,” concluded Croci-Torti. Because in a match like this, where every detail can make a difference, the support of the crowd can also make all the difference.
INJURED PLAYERS
The rehabilitation programs for Martim Marques (medial meniscus) and Daniel Dos Santos (ankle sprain) are progressing according to plan.
