FC Basel 1893 AG is responsible for the operational business of the club, e.g. the 1st team, a large part of the youth department and the back office are affiliated there.
Last updated: 1 July 2014Source: FCB Official Site At the end of the 2013–14 FC Basel season, four first-team players left the club to continue their careers elsewhere: Yann Sommer to Borussia Mönchengladbach; Valentin Stocker to Hertha BSC; Kay Voser to Fulham; and Admir Seferagić to Schaffhausen.
Basel's four biggest signings for the beginning of the new season were Tomáš Vaclík from Sparta Prague; Yoichiro Kakitani from Cerezo Osaka; Derlis González from Benfica; and Shkëlzen Gashi from Grasshopper.
During the winter break, two team members transferred to Bundesliga clubs: Serey Dié to VfB Stuttgart and Marcelo Díaz to Hamburger SV.
In the other direction, on 10 January, Basel announced that left-back Adama Traoré had joined from Vitória de Guimarães, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.
In round 17, as league leaders, Basel played the away tie against second-placed Zürich and won 2–1; Shkëlzen Gashi scored both goals.
However, a home draw against Sion followed, then a defeat in the Stade de Suisse against the Young Boys, who moved closer in the table, and again, the criticism mounted against head coach Sousa.
The moods had already been heated, following the red cards against Davide Chiumiento and Shkëlzen Gashi, then because pyrotechnic material flew close to the playing field after the Zürich goal, especially from the guest fan-sector, the referee interrupted the game and sent both teams into the changing rooms.
Head coach Paulo Sousa let the Basel team play without various of their top performers such as Marco Streller, Fabian Frei and Shkelzen Gashi for this cup tie.
The match was played in the Stadion Niedermatten in Wohlen, which has a capacity of 3,734, so the hosts’ built an additional grandstand for their fans and the attendance on the matchday was 4,100 spectators.
Goal getter Shkelzen Gashi put Basel in the front after a quarter of an hour, the pass came from Breel Embolo, who had out danced three opponents following an error by Daniele Russo.
Centre back Russo hesitated, not only this time, and the goal getter slotted home with a hard, low shot into the far corner.
The Red-Whites have never been able to win a cup final so clearly and the fact that this was achieved with the strongest Super League club over the previous years was astonishing and impressive at the same time.
As it seemed that Basel had over stood the start furioso, full-back Nacho’s cross was deflected by Marek Suchý into his own goal after just 14 minutes.
Basel’s goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík was beaten again on 30 minutes, Modrić's pass over the defence fell into the path of Gareth Bale, who lifted the ball over the outrushing keeper and tapped it into an empty goal.
Minutes later Basel centre-back Fabian Schär hit a long-range shot that beat the Real goalie but bounced off the post.
Head coach Paulo Sousa made a bold decision to give 17-year-old forward Breel Embolo his maiden Champions League start.
Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet stood exactly right as an Elneny’s effort bent inward and goalward and soon afterwards Ahmed Hamoudi hammered his shot just beyond the far post, just as Basel produced the more threatening chances before the half time break.
The most dangerous of these chances came on 35 minutes as Geoffroy Serey Die received Marco Streller’s return one/two pass and out dribbled two challenges, but his angled shot was kicked away by Mignolet.
Just after the hour, the Italian striker forced Basel goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik with a powerful free kick from about 25 meters to an unorthodox parade with his chest.
One minute later a knockback for the visitors, as Serey Die took on a ball from Fabian Frei in the middle of the opponents’ half he collided with Cosmin Moți.
The numerical disadvantage was not obvious immediately, after a nice one/two with Davide Calla, Derlis Gonzalez almost put Basel a goal up, big save from goalie Vladislav Stoyanov.
In the second period the home team had more possession and created a number of chances, especially from set pieces, but goalie Vaclík was equal to them all.
The spell broke on 34 minutes, captain Fabian Frei found the precision, with a good pass to Breel Embolo, who won the duel with Georgi Terziev and cold bloodedly put the hosts in front.
On 35 minutes Karim Benzema, who had not been seen before, entered the box with speed from the left, diagonally to the by-line outplaying Fabian Schär and passed with precision backwards to Cristiano Ronaldo, who hit the ball into the net.
Basel only needed the draw to secure their first knockout-stage appearance since season 2011/12, so long as Ludogorets didn’t win their match in Madrid.
It wasn't necessarily just because of Liverpool's recurring problem of having to be creative, Basel head coach Paulo Sousa obviously had the right match plan in place.
On 59 minutes Xhaka ran diagonally from the right sideline toward the centre and struck a shot with left, goalie Simon Mignolet was beaten, but the ball rolled inches wide.
[19] Before this second leg, all talk was about how Porto would cope without Jackson Martínez, after their forward and captain was ruled out for "several weeks" with a groin problem.
Finally, it was Vincent Aboubakar's fine shot, after he turned around Walter Samuel, before rifling in from over 20 Meters with some 14 minutes left that gave the 4–0 end result.