Before the home game against Basel, FCL coach Mario Frick is piling low and warns: “Dreaming is of no use!”
FC Luzern will play in the sold-out Swisspor Arena for the first time in a year on Sunday (4:30 p.m.). And the Central Swiss are leaders for the first time in 13 years. The guests are FC Basel with Xherdan Shaqiri, who last played and scored here in April 2012. Reason enough for FCL coach Mario Frick to warn his team.
Mario Frick consciously looks very realistically into the future. The FCL coach wants to bring his team back to reality.
Image: Martin Meienberger/Freshfocus (St.Gallen, September 21, 2024)
FCL coach Mario Frick emphasizes: “It is very important that we have full focus on the game against Basel.” His team shouldn’t be too euphoric after the 3-2 win in St.Gallen and the subsequent jump to first place “and it’s no use if we start dreaming.” Because the Liechtensteiner knows: “If you fly high, you also hit very hard – namely on the ground of reality.”
Frick explains: “We know where we belong and what potential we have. We also know that there are many teams in this league that have better qualities than us. We can classify that very well.” With these deep words, the 50-year-old former coach of FC Vaduz not only wants to take away his team’s role as favorites, but he really means it: “The team surprised me a lot, I didn’t expect this excellent start.”
It got off to a good start a year ago
In the first seven games, the Central Swiss team collected 14 points. By the way, there are just as many points as the FCL had a year ago after seven games in the 2023/24 season. This was followed by a 1-1 draw in Basel and a 1-4 home defeat against FC Zurich – in front of a sold-out home stadium on October 1, 2023. The opportunity at that time to take the lead in the Super League for the first time in a dozen years , was gone. At the end of the season, the Lucerne team ended up in seventh place and not in the top 6.
Recommendation: Use public transport
Because Circus Monti is currently performing in Lucerne, parking spaces on the Allmend are limited on Sundays. The stadium is completely sold out with 15,680 fans for FC Luzern’s home game against FC Basel. The FCL officials ask those attending the match to arrive early by public transport.
Almost twelve months later it has now worked out with the leader position ex aequo with FC Zurich and tied on points with FC Lugano (3rd). The club from the Swisspor Arena has FC St.Gallen to thank for defeating FCZ 4-1 at home in the catch-up game during the week. It was 13 years ago that the FCL last said hello from the top of the table; the coaching duo at that time is now responsible for the Swiss national team: Murat Yakin and his assistant Giorgio Contini.
Frick doesn’t hide the fact that he is proud of his team
Frick says that the table is an issue within the team. “That’s normal.” When asked whether he was proud of first place, the former Serie A striker replied: “Of course! Anything else would be a lie. But we can’t buy anything with it, we’ve only played seven games.” By the way, Frick was most recently leader with Vaduz when he moved from the Challenge league team from the Principality of Liechtenstein to central Switzerland shortly before Christmas 2021.
Regarding the Swisspor Arena, which has been sold out since Thursday evening with 15,680 fans for Sunday’s game against FCB, Frick says that it doesn’t affect him, “even though there is a huge euphoria that I don’t want to slow down.” He still looks back with some concern on last weekend, when FC Basel had a sold-out St. Jakob Park with 36,000 spectators against FC Zurich and lost 2-0. “We saw in Basel what danger there is when the stadium is completely full, there is a lot of fuss all around and you can no longer concentrate on the game,” explains Frick. “We definitely want to avoid that.”
The FCL coach has to worry about the use of Stefan Knezevic and Thibault Klidjé on Sunday because both the central defender and the striker are suffering from muscular problems. Statistically speaking, FC Basel is not Lucerne’s favorite opponent anyway: The Blue-Whites have only won two of their last 17 Super League duels against Basel (5 defeats, 10 draws). The FCL has also been waiting for a home win against FCB since June 21, 2020. At that time, Fabio Celestini, the current Basel coach, coached the central Swiss team.
Hype about FCB returnee Xherdan Shaqiri
Ex-Nati star Xherdan Shaqiri has scored one goal for FC Basel since his return: in the cup against Nyon.
Bild: Pascal Muller/Freshfocus (Nyon, 15. 8. 2024)
For the first time since April 7, 2012, Xherdan Shaqiri will play for FC Basel in Lucerne. In the 1-1 draw in front of 17,000 fans in the also sold-out Swisspor Arena, he spectacularly scored the Basel goal. The goal was almost as attractive as the goal for Switzerland in the 2016 European Championship round of 16 in France against Poland. Frick states: “The hype surrounding ‘Shaq’ is very big. He is an asset to the entire league. That’s why it’s a big game on Sunday.”
Although Shaqiri is not yet in full possession of his strength and is not yet in the optimal rhythm of the game, “he doesn’t need much, he can do a lot from an individual action like at the European Championships. He is very dangerous at set pieces. “We have to try to keep him in check with his dribbling and passing as well as his finishing with his strong left foot,” said Frick.
More articles from these communities
