Image from fcb.ch
Egypt rising star Mohamed Salah made his long-awaited league debut with Swiss champions FC Basel, playing a crucial role in all three of their goals against FC Thun.
Salah quickly replicated his impressive form with Egypt in front of 27,422 spectators at St. Jakob-Park, winning FC Basel a penalty after 10 minutes.
The 20-year-old outran the defender and was tripped inside the box by goalkeeper Guillaume Faivre, who was yellow-carded, and captain Marco Streller buried his 100th goal for the club from the spot.
Within the first 30 minutes of play, Mohamed Salah forced four cards out of the referee, one of which was a red to Thun’s keeper after picking up a second yellow for handling the ball outside the area – preventing the onrushing Salah from creeping behind.
The Egyptian was also involved in Basel’s 2nd and 3rd goals shortly after. For the third, he beautifully played Steinhöfer down line with a back-heel, who crossed to Streller and his header was rebounded off the bar and smashed in by Stocker.
Salah’s linkup play was brilliant, and his speed proved almost impossible for the Thun defenders to deal with, but he was unlucky not to get on the score sheet himself after coming extremely close on a few occasions.
Basel coach Heiko Vogel was extremely impressed by Salah’s performance, and said, “his speed is a major stress factor for the opponent.” With a bit more luck he could’ve had a brace he said, and adds, “I do not think we have to wait long until he enters into the scorers (list).”
This win was FC Basel’s second, who are currently second in the Swiss Super League table with nine points. Their next game is on Saturday, August 18th 2012, against FC Lausanne-Sport.
