Basel 2 : 1 FC Otelul Galati - Frei spares Basle blushes

Posted Wednesday, September 14, 2011 by PA

Alexander Frei's late penalty earned Basle an unimpressive 2-1 victory at home to Champions League debutants Otelul Galati.

The veteran striker converted from the spot in the 84th minute after Adrian Salageanu was sent off to deny the Romanian minnows a point.

Marius Pena struck a second-half equaliser for the visitors to cancel out Fabian Frei's opener, but they were unable to grab a second leveller after Basle had Benjamin Huggel dismissed at the death.

The visitors settled the quicker and Gabriel Giurgiu and Pena tested Yann Sommer inside the opening six minutes, although the Basle goalkeeper comfortably dealt with both efforts.

Romania midfielder Giurgiu then had a volley from the left side of the area blocked by David Abraham as Otelul continued to get into promising positions.

Basle, though, were always going to pose a threat with Alexander Frei, Switzerland's all-time top scorer, leading the line and his long-range effort brought a brilliant parried save out of Otelul keeper Branko Grahovac in the 27th minute.

But it was his namesake Fabian Frei who put the hosts in front in the 39th minute, heading Marco Streller's right-wing cross into the bottom corner.

The visitors did anything but crumble, though, and John Ibeh brought a smart stop out of Sommer with a drilled effort from 20 yards.

And they drew level in the 58th minute when Liviu Antal's fierce shot was parried by Sommer and Pena was on hand to clip the rebound over the keeper and into the net.

Basle, knowing they realistically needed to take maximum points at home against on paper the weakest team in the group if they were to stand a chance of progressing, pushing forward in search of a winner, but struggled to break down Otelul.

Granit Xhaka fired over the bar from inside the area before the decisive moment arrived in the 84th minute.

Salageanu fouled down Streller in the box and, after the Romanian was sent off, Alexander Frei fired the penalty into the bottom left corner, Grahovac guessing right but unable to keep it out.

The numbers were evened up when Huggel received a second yellow three minutes from time, but Basle had little trouble seeing out the game.

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