UEFA Champions League – Match Review: CFR Cluj versus Basel
Cluj started their UEFA Champions League journey with an interesting encounter against the Swiss champions, F.C Basel. Basel came to the match expecting to surprise the Romanian outfit just like they had done in the 2008-2009 version of the UEFA Champions
League with Barcelona.
Cluj who are formally known as CFR Cluj started with Nuno Claro in goal. Their defensive line included Alcântara, Anin, Cadu and Rada. In midfield they had their dangerous winger, Culio on the right. Hora, Muresan, Dica made up the rest of their midfield.
Cluj opted for Bastos and Traore in attack as they setup with a 4-4-2 formation.
Basel on the other hand, opted for just a single striker in the shape of their veteran target man Alexander Frei. Frei was complimented by midfield five of Shaqiri, Huggel, Yapi Yapo, Stocker and Streller. In defence, the Swiss champions went with the experience
of Inkoom, Abraham, Atan and Safari while Costanzo took his place for Basel in between the goal posts as their regular shot stopper.
Cluj started the match off brightly and quickly gained momentum. They forced Basel in frequently frustrating fouls and throw inns, through which the Romanians retained possession of the ball. In the eight minute of the match, Culio’s corner was right on
spot for Rada; the defender rose above everyone else to head the ball home and in doing so gave his team a one goal to nil lead right at the start.
After the goal, Cluj became more confident in possession and threw their weight forward once again. This time in the 12th minute of the match, they succeeded in doubling their lead as Culio broke from his team’s own half into the opposition’s
side of the field. He showed great determination in fighting off a challenge from Abraham and then crossed the ball to his team mate Traore, who executed a delightful finish to give his side a two goal cushion without reply. In the 25th minute of
the match, Cristian Panin was the first player to get booked as he made a rash tackle on Marco Streller.
Cluj dominated the control of the ball from there on in till the half time whistle. The Romanian giants looked incredibly comfortable at the back as Basel failed to test their four defenders on a consistent basis. Before the half time whistle blew, Basel
launched an attack of their own and succeeded in scoring a morale boosting goal just before the break. The goal came through their striker Frei, who met his team mate’s set piece from the right side of the Cluj penalty area. The goal meant that Basel were
back in the game as at the half time whistle they trailed Cluj by only a single goal.
Marco Streller became the first Basel player to go into the book after the half time break at around the 51st minute mark. The midfielder caught Traore on the heel as the Cluj striker was ushering his team forward. Basel made two substitutions
in the 73rd minute of the match as Fwayo Tembo came on for Behrang Safari and Scott Chipperfield made an entry in place of Valentin Stocker.
Despite getting the goal at the end of the first half, Basel appeared to be blunt in their attack towards the Cluj goal. Every time the Swiss champions rushed forwards, their opposition’s defence quickly closed the gates on them and gave their offensive
players few opportunities to get a chance to shoot on their goal.
In the last minutes of the match, particularly in the injury time that was added on by the referee, Basel broke into attack in large numbers but what they had in numbers wasn’t enough in terms of quality as at the final whistle the match ended at the score
line of 2-1 to Cluj, who succeeded in masterminding their first win of the UEFA Champions League 2010-2011.
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