- FC Winterthur beats St. Gallen 3-2 away in the 28th round of the Super League.
- Matteo Di Giusto is involved in all three goals of the promoted team, which temporarily gives the red lantern to Sion.
- In the other games of the day, Sion is a guest at GC, Basel welcomes YB.
Almost 73 percent ball possession, 11:1 corners and 24:8 completions: The statistics clearly spoke for the hosts in green and white in the fourth duel of the season between St. Gallen and Winterthur. However, victory went to the promoted team for the third time, bringing them just one point behind their canton rivals FCZ.
The fact that Winterthur was able to start the journey home with three points in its luggage was primarily thanks to Matteo Di Giusto. The 1.68 meter short offensive player was involved in all three goals of the promoted team and scored two of them himself in the turbulent first half:
- 37 minutes: Di Giusto takes a free kick from a little over 20 meters. The man from Zurich shoots past the wall on the right, catches Lawrence Ati Zigi in the goalie corner and scores to make it 2-2
- 43 minutes: After a long ball to Joaquin Ardaiz, Zigi storms out of his goal. His poor attempt at clarification ends up back at Ardaiz, who hangs up for Di Giusto. The U21 national player doesn’t hesitate for a second and lobs the ball in the direction of the St. Gallen goal. Basil Stillhart wants to clear the line, but fails miserably and cannot prevent the 2:3.
Di Giusto had already had his feet in the game when the promoted team scored the opening goal in the 7th minute. Nishan Burkart’s headed goal was preceded by a shot by the 22-year-old that Zigi was unable to clear sufficiently.
St. Gallen, who had to do without their suspended coach Peter Zeidler, did not seem to worry about the early deficit. Before the end of the first half hour, the hosts had turned the game back in their favor. First Isaac Schmidt scored after a one-two with Lukas Görtler (18′), then Jérémy Guillemenot headed a corner kick into the net to take a 2-1 lead (29′).
With a view to the current season, the game was actually already decided at this point. Winterthur had only scored more than one goal in 27 games this season. St. Gallen reckoned without Di Giusto on this rainy Sunday.
Buess’ failed Panenka goes unpunished
Although the eastern Swiss continued to dominate the game in the second half, they always found their master in Markus Kuster in the Winterthur goal. Roman Buess should have noted with satisfaction that St. Gallen were no longer able to equalize. So the failed Panenka attempt in the 84th minute, which hit the crossbar, was only a side note.
Here’s how to proceed
Winterthur welcomes the Grasshoppers to the Canton Derby next Saturday (6:00 p.m.). St. Gallen travels to FC Zurich one day later (4:30 p.m.).