As the saying goes, the league's "long-distance battle" is doubly difficult, and short-lived examples abound, but two Europa League dark horses have successfully persevered to the end this past weekend, fulfilling their many-year wishes. The Swiss Super League champions are not four-time Champions Bernese youngsters or traditional giants Basel, but FC Zürich, who was relegated six years ago and won for the first time since 2009; nor is the Turkish Super League in the pockets of Galatasaray, Besiktas or Fenerbahce, but Trabzonspor, who has been away from the champions for 38 years.
Can be called Der Klassiker's "national play", the Bundesliga has Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund, and the Swiss Super League has Basel vs. Zurich: the most classic scene comes from the closing day of 2006, Zurich as a guest with a 2-1 defeat to Basel 13 seconds before the end of the game, with a goal difference to suppress the opponent's crown, triggering some home fans to rush into the stadium in anger to chase the Ugly picture of Zurich players. Blerim D-emaili, who was still a rising swiss midfielder and had been playing in Serie A for many years, may have imagined that he would be able to relive his dream of winning the title after 16 years.
The team finished 8th out of 10 teams last season, and this season invited former Paderborn, Schalke 04 and Hannover boss André Breitenreiter to coach but was reborn to play pleasant, direct attacking football, including wingback Adrià Guerrero with 10 assists, and Gambia striker Assan Ceesay, who scored just two goals last season and scored 18 goals. Including the first game to open the record, help the team to beat Basel 2-0 away, score 72 points in 32 games after the game, dominate the league four rounds earlier, and bring the trophy back to Switzerland's largest city.
As for last December, it was written that Trabzon and Saint-Giros had a joint surge, after 5 months the two armies were still strong, Saint-Giros united into the playoff stage continued to have some slight advantages, while Trabzon took the lead in arriving at the base, after the 2-2 race of Ping'an Thalia on May 1, the remaining three rounds of the tournament were 9 points ahead of Fenerbahce, and they were definitely crowned because of the better results in the match. After the game, the whole city waved its mobile phone lights like a super-large song and dance party, and it was reported that more than a million fans in Trabzon's 800,000-population town were ready to celebrate the victory, and the result was to get what they wanted to party together.
Danish striker Andreas Cornelius, whose team is not very strong but has a mediocre goal percentage, has become a sky tyrant, and 33-year-old Nigerian winger Anthony Nwakaeme has also scored double-digit goals, and it is no wonder that the most familiar Slovak midfielder Marek Hamsik also admitted after the game: "This is the first league title of my career, I never thought it would be achieved here, but we did it!" It feels good to bring joy to so many fans. As seen from the videos posted on social media, the symbolism of Trabzon for this northeastern Black Sea town is far more than just one team, especially the last time the monopoly of the "Istanbul Three Heroes" was broken (65 seasons of the Turkish Super League won a total of 57 times), it was 38 years ago, so winning the championship for local players is almost a reality of the story read by the bedside companion as a child.
(If you enjoy the fairy tale of the ball, in addition to the above-mentioned Belgian first division team St. Giros United, Poland also has Raków Cz stochowa to win the cup and fight with Poznan Lake until the end of the league, and have the opportunity to share the story of this team.) ）