match report
First the farewell to the club icon, then the jump to the top of the table: FC Aarau wins 2-0 once morest Thun
It was hard work – but with a happy ending for the home team: following beating the Bernese Oberland, Aarauer greeted them from first place following 21 match days. The football festival in front of 4277 spectators in Brügglifeld was also a journey into the past.
Before kick-off, the past returns to the Brügglifeld stadium: a week following his death, fans, team and club commemorate Honorary President Ernst Lämmli with a minute’s silence. Memories of the most formative club figure of modern times – and memories of the 90s, when the small FC Aarau taught the greats of Swiss football to fear.
The up-and-coming FC Aarau of the present is far from that far. But the frame on the day of Lämmli’s farewell fits: 4722 spectators, season record and more than for three years. Sunshine, an exciting, hard-fought affiche between the home team and good guests from Thun, two goals, as beautiful to look at as a painting in the Louvre – and in the end FC Aarau greets us from the top of the table in the sky, where Lämmli, that’s how we introduce ourselves that before, with relish lights up the victory cigar.
Before kick-off, fans, team and club say goodbye to Ernst Lämmli (1939 – 2022).
There are also many players from the 1993 championship team in the stadium that day. In Lämmli’s honor, but certainly also to get a personal impression of how their successors are doing on the pitch. And what the legends see, they should like it.
Although Aarau didn’t come onto the pitch at full speed this time, they instead looked at Thun first, only to gain more and more dominance and take a 1-0 lead in the middle of the first half. Shkelzen Gashi shoved the ball over the line in the 24th minute but quickly rushed to Randy Schneider, who took most of the goal. Played low following a corner, he fakes a movement to the right, while pulling the ball to the left with his sole and letting two opponents run into space. After that, Schneider has a clear path and sight for the allusion to Gashi.
Aarau uses power advantage mercilessly
From this moment on, Aarau is the leader of the table, but still has more than an hour of playing time ahead of them and an opponent who demonstrates their playful class and physical robustness in many scenes and with more composure when Schüpbach (13th) and Bürki (57th) have great chances. might give the game a different direction.
Donat Rrudhani (left) in a duel with Pascal Schüpbach, who missed a big chance in the first quarter of an hour.
But FCA defends itself in difficult phases just as cleverly and passionately as it dominates most of the game – and then takes advantage of the fact that the opponent’s strength is dwindling. Understandable, Thun fought a battle of attrition in the cup once morest Lugano (3:4) on Thursday evening.
telegram
FC Aarau – FC Thun 2: 0 (1: 0)
Brugglifeld. – 4722 spectators. – SR: Turkes. – Goals: 24. Gashi 1-0. 64.Vladi 2-0.
Aarau: Enzler; Giger, Cvetkovic, Bergsma, Kronig; Bunjaku (82. Balaj); Rrudhani (82. Conus), Schneider (82. Almeida), Njie (70. Jäckle); Gashi (59. Vladi), Spadanuda.
Thun: Ziswiler; Dorn, Sutter, Bürki, Schuepbach; Hasler, Fatkic (80. Rüdlin); Dzonlagic (Schmidt 80), Castroman (Dos Santos 68), Schwizer (Ndongo 68); Kyeremateng (68th Gerndt).
Notes: Aarau without Aratore, Thaler (both injured), Avdyli, Caserta and Qollaku (all not in the squad). Thun without Hirzel (ill), Ahmed, Dushica, Lekaj, Roth and Wyssen (all not in the squad). – Warnings: 2 Njie, 14 Schüpbach, 30 Sutter (all foul play), 61 Bürki (unsportsmanlike), 91 Cvetkovic (foul game), 91 Dos Santos (unsportsmanlike).
Aarau coach Stephan Keller brought in Shkelqim Vladi for goal scorer Gashi in the 59th minute and was happy five minutes later: About his golden touch and regarding the quality on the bench, where players like Jäckle, Balaj, Conus and Vladi are sitting would probably have a regular place with some league competitors. Vladi was freed by Imran Bunjaku in the 64th minute, let the ball bounce once and then fired it into the net from 20 meters over Thun goalie Ziswiler. The 2-0 breaks the resistance of the guests, who are still lucky in the final phase when referee Mirel Turkes does not send the central defender off following a deliberate handball by Bürkis.
It was a battle of attrition at times, but FC Aarau (Spadanuda in the picture) never lost control of what was happening.
After the final whistle, everything revolves around FC Aarau leading the table for the first time in almost nine years (3178 days) and how the team is dealing with the role change from hunter to hunted. “We’re where we belong now,” says Raoul Giger, adding: “Before the season started, we said we wanted to move up. The pressure was there before and will continue, but we’ve matured over the past few months and we can handle it. I’m not worried at all that someone will pick us up.” His trainer Stephan Keller says: “That’s how I imagined it.”
The game to read in Patrick Haller’s live ticker: