With the home win, the Bernese have regained some breathing room in the fight for the championship. The Grasshoppers, on the other hand, are plunging deeper into the crisis.
Giotto Morandi (l.) fights for the ball with Joel Monteiro.
Anthony Anex / KEYSTONE
(sda) The Young Boys had remained goalless for over 200 minutes before the start of the duel against GC, and they had not scored in four of the last five games. In front of their own fans in Wankdorf, the champions were more reminiscent of the team that had dismantled Basel 5-1 a good three weeks ago than of the team that had recently struggled in vain in Yverdon and Lausanne.
Meschack Elia opened the score in the 6th minute, Silvère Ganvoula doubled just under a quarter of an hour later, and Joël Monteiro capitalized on a perfect assist from Sandy Janko in the 21st minute to make it 3-0. The goals came at the right time for the three strikers, as Bern’s attack in particular had come under criticism in recent weeks. None of the trio had scored regularly recently.
The Young Boys, who have scored 35 of 42 possible points at home this season, are now four points ahead of their first pursuer Servette. The Grasshoppers, meanwhile, were penultimate and lost three points from their reserves against bottom team Stade Lausanne-Ouchy. The Zurich team are still within striking distance of FC Basel, but they also have to look backwards. SLO is seven points behind.
For the Grasshoppers, the defeat wasn’t just painful in purely mathematical terms. Especially in the starting phase, they played courageously forward and promptly conceded the goals. In the last ten games, GC has only won six points.