Returnee Raul Bobadilla should help lead FC Schaffhausen to stay in the league. (archive image)
Keystone
Sion and Thun are fighting a duel for direct promotion in the Challenge League. FC Schaffhausen is tackling the relegation battle with stronger personnel.
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- The second half of the Challenge League is coming up. While a duel between FC Thun and FC Sion is looming for promotion, Schaffhausen is in the relegation zone.
The top duo Sion and Thun are level before the start of the second half of the season on Friday. The lead over the first pursuer Stade Nyonnais is 13 points, one point behind Wil still has a supplementary game against FC Schaffhausen in hand.
Schaffhausen enters the second half of the season as bottom of the table. The Munotstadt team got off to a miserable start in the fall, but showed an upward trend towards the end of the year and went on the transfer offensive in the winter – with the new sports director Admir Mehmedi.
Eren Derdiyok is no longer involved as a player. The 60-time national player, who came to Schaffhausen from Turkey last summer, was no longer able to help the club on the pitch, resigned during the winter break and is now with the team as assistant to the new coach Christian Wimmer.
Bobadilla instead of Derdiyok and further reinforcements
The new old hope for more goals is Raul Bobadilla. The 36-year-old former YB, Basel and Bundesliga striker returned to his old place of work after six months with the Turkish second division club Bandirmaspor. In his first guest appearance, Bobadilla scored 19 goals in 41 games.
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Midfielder Sekou Sanogo and full-back Ermir Lenjani (both 34), who are particularly well-known in this country from his YB days, are now available as suppliers in Schaffhausen. In addition, 21-year-old loan player Valon Zumberi from Hamburger SV will strengthen the relegation-threatened team in the second half of the season.
Although reports of dubious financial dealings surrounding the club recently caused some unrest, with two points behind Baden, Schaffhausen’s task appears to be solvable. Vaduz (4 points ahead of Schaffhausen with one game more) and Aarau, which was weak in preparation (6 points), are also still within striking distance – and AC Bellinzona, which has strengthened under the new Spanish coach Manuel Benavente, as well as Wil, Xamax and Stade Nyonnais are not left out Range.
Sion with new perspectives
At the top everything boils down to a duel between leader Sion and Thun, who have the same number of points, for direct promotion. Sion is making a good case after relegation, has upgraded with, among other things, the not entirely cheap Bulgarian striker Georgi Russev and, thanks to the canton of Valais’ solidarity with club president Christian Constantin, is again looking optimistically into the future on the question of stadium financing. At Thun, the calm, serious work under coach Mauro Lustrinelli is clearly paying off.
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