1978–79 FC Basel season


The Fussball Club Basel 1893 1978–79 season was their 85th season since the club was founded. It was their 33rd consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after they won promotion during the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium.

Overview

was first team manager for the thirteenth consecutive season. Basel played a total of 59 games in their 1978–79 season. 32 in the domestic league, three in the Swiss Cup, six in the Swiss League Cup, two in the 1978–79 UEFA Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and 12 were friendly matches. The team scored a total of 110 goals and conceded 97.
Basel played in the 1978–79 Nationalliga A. This was contested by the first 10 teams from the previous season and the newly promoted teams Nordstern Basel and Chiasso. After a double round-robin in the qualification phase, the top six teams played in a championship group for the title and the bottom six teams in the relegation group. The teams in these two groups started with the bonus of half the points from the qualifying phase. Basel ended the qualification round in fourth position and finished the Championship Group in sixth position with 18 points. They ended the season 17 points behind championship winners Servette who won all ten matches in the championship stage. Basel scored a total of 54 goals conceding 53 in 32 games. Detlev Lauscher was the team's top goal scorer with 14 league goals.
In the first round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against FC Glattbrugg and this was the first time that these two clubs had ever played against each other. The game was played on 7 October 1978 and Basel won 7–0. In the second round Basel were drawn away and won against Zürich. In the third round Basel were away against Xamax and were knocked out of the competition. In the first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were drawn against Grenchen. This was played as a two legged affair, winning the home game and losing away game, Basel advanced 4–3 on aggregate. Basel won in the round of 16 against Nordstern Basel. In the quarter-final they won against Luzern and in the semi-final they won against Xamax to reach the final. The final was played on 5 May 1979 in the Wankdorf Stadium, Bern. This was against Servette. After extra time the score was 2–2, but Servette won 4–3 on penalties.
In the 1978–79 UEFA Cup Basel were drawn against VfB Stuttgart. The first game was lost 2–3 in St. Jakob Stadium and the away game in the Neckarstadion was lost 1–4. VfB Stuttgart won 7–3 on aggregate and continued to the second round.
In the Coppa delle Alpi Basel played with Stade de Reims and Sochaux in Group B together with Lausanne-Sport. Lausanne-Sport won the group and thus played in the final only to lose this against the winners of group A, Servette FC, 4–0.

Players

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre-season

Winter break and mid-season

Nationalliga

Qualifying phase matches

Qualifying round table

Championship group matches

Championship group table

Swiss Cup

Swiss League Cup

Servette won 4–3 on penalties

UEFA Cup

;First round
VfB Stuttgart won 7–3 on aggregate.

Coppa delle Alpi

;Group B
NB: teams did not play compatriots
;Group table