Football – Switzerland – Super League
Saturday 19th July 2014 – Kickoff: 1745hrs
This weekend marks the start of the new season in the Swiss Super League and one of Saturday’s matches features Aarau taking on last season’s title holders Basel at the Stadion Brugglifeld in the opening match of the season.
Aarau finished a disappointing second from bottom in the Super league at the end of last season but fortunately for them, a poor Lausanne Sport endured a horrific season and today’s hosts ended up a comfortable 18 points ahead of the relegated side.
However, it looks like being another long campaign for Aarau who will be looking to at least finish above this season’s newcomers FC Vaduz who were promoted from the Challenge League at the end of last season.
In their three pre-season matches, Aarau have returned mixed fortunes with a 1-2 defeat at home to Zurich, a 2-2 draw with Challenge League side Lugano, and ended their preparations with a 5-0 home win over Wil who ended with a third place finish in the Challenge league last campaign.
Visitors Basel won the Super League last season by a handsome seven point margin over runners-up Grasshoppers, and indeed joined the second placed team into this season’s Champions League qualifiers.
Basel’s pre-season warm-up matches (and indeed opposition) have been a little more extravagant than their opponents today with matches against Wacker Innsbruck (won 3-0 away), lost 0-4 to Sparta Prague at home, a 2-1 home win over Terek Grozny and a 1-2 loss to FC Schaffhausen.
Last season, Basel ended up with an overall away record of 8-9-1 29/16 and they beat Aarau in their last match meeting between the two sides with a 3-1 away win. In fact, Basel hold a good record over today’s opponents having won three of the last four encounters.
I’m confident Basel will start their new campaign on a positive note here, and they should be too strong for an Aarau outfit who finished second from bottom last season. I’ll back Basel to perhaps win this 2-1.
Pick: Basel straight win @ 1.70 Pinnacle
