Ceccaroni is still considered to be a cult figure in Basel, due to his 25 years total of loyalty towards the club and the fact that he never scored a goal in the top flight of Swiss football.

[2] Other players who left the squad included fellow retirees Oliver Kreuzer and Romain Crevoisier, and Miroslav König, who transferred to Zürich.

Basel's biggest pre-season signings were Bernt Haas, who was loaned in from West Bromwich Albion, Julio Hernán Rossi transferred in from Lugano, goalkeeper Eric Rapo came in from and Antonio Esposito from St.

In the 65th minute, as Murat Yakin slotted home the fourth, following a rebound out of the area from the completely overwhelmed Xamax defence, any doubts about the outcome of the game were wiped out.

[8] In the second qualifying round of the Champions League, Basel were drawn against Slovakian club Žilina, and after a 1–1 draw in the first leg, came away with a 4–1 win on aggregate.

Basel started the game at a high tempo and Celtic could have been a goal behind after just three minutes, but midfielder Paul Lambert stretched his leg out to block a close range shot from Ivan Ergic.

The Glasgow side could have leveled soon after, but Henrik Larsson's firm header went straight into Basel keeper Pascal Zuberbuhler's arms from just five yards out.

Celtic made two substitutions at half time, Didier Agathe and Steve Guppy coming on to play on the flanks in their usual formation and the Scots were immediately on the offensive.

In the final minute of added time, a Sutton shot passed just inches wide of the left goalpost, but this was the end of the Celtic siege on the Swiss side's goal.

Julio Hernán Rossi gave Spartak their first scare in the 15th minute as he sent a header into the net past Stanislav Cherchesov, but Basel's Argentine striker was ruled offside.

In the 50th minute, Hakan Yakin put FC Basel on the path to victory, latching on to Christian Eduardo Giménez's pass to shoot left-footed into the net.

Liverpool pressed for the win in the second half, but whenever central defenders Alexandre Quennoz or Murat Yakin made a mistake, keeper Zuberbühler stood firm on the line to save the day for his team.

[20] It rained all day on 2 October on Spain's south-eastern coast, and minutes before kick-off in the Valencia-Basel match in the half full Mestalla Stadium, it started to pour.

Hardly properly organized and struggling through the countless pools of water spread over the pitch, Basel's game was hopelessly lost and very soon all focus was on damage limitation.

Miguel Ángel Angulo hit the lower edge of the bar in the 49th minute and Mista saw his shot cleared off the goal line by captain Murat Yakin, before it snuck in again behind the powerless Pascal Zuberbühler.

Two minutes before the end of time the counter-attack was well played and Christian Giménez went clear to put the ball past keeper Maksym Levytskyi to secure the 2–0 victory.

The Liverpool coach Gérard Houllier's strategy proved to be founded on a slight misconception and knowing that he had to win, he persuaded himself that he could afford to leave out the calm player Salif Diao in the interests of fielding a more expressive line-up from the beginning.

In the second minute, Danny Murphy lost the ball to Antonio Esposito, who immediately beat the offside trap with a well played diagonal pass to Hakan Yakin.

Salif Diao came in for a poor Steven Gerrard and he restored the team order and, after an hour, began the build-up that saw Murphy finish accurately after being neatly teed up by midfielder Vladimir Smicer.

But the ball landed by Scott Chipperfield and his fierce shot was deflected in by Christian Giminez past the helpless Fabien Barthez after just 31 seconds.

However, the Swiss were able to recover quickly from the early deficit and dominated the game for the next quarter of an hour, but Christian Giménez in particular was unable to take advantage of the chances they had created.

The match was played tactically by the home side and the visitors, with their goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbühler as captain for the injured Murat Yakin, could not find the space that they would have liked against the well defending opponents.

Victory over United, who had already assured their automatic qualification for the knock-out stage, would set up an epic finish as Basel would entertain Juventus for the last match of the group.

The team flew early to England, on the day after their weekend league win over Servette, to avoid the temptation of a player's visit to the local Fasnacht.

In the 14th minute, Christian Giménez controlled a cross with this chest and right footed a volley beyond keeper Roy Carroll, who played in place of regular goalie Fabien Barthez.

Manager Alex Ferguson had also given the regulars David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes a break by leaving them on the Bench, at the same time giving Kieran Richardson his debut for the team.

The Italians had the better start and on ten minutes, broke through; Cristian Zenoni fed Alessio Tacchinardi, whose left-footed long range shot gave keeper Pascal Zuberbühler no chance.

Hakan Yakin, with a clever chip, forced keeper Gianluigi Buffon to tip the ball wide of the post and he also had to save a shot from Scott Chipperfield.

A sloppy clearance from Mark Iuliano was caught and pushed on by Christian Giménez and Mario Cantaluppi reacted quickly to volley home his first Champions League goal.

This additional revenue should keep Basel in touch with all the other Swiss league contenders, but is well shy of the finances of teams such as Real Madrid, Juventus or Manchester United.