2006–07 FC Basel season

Following a very poor start to the season, five defeats in the first ten rounds, Basel were ten championship points behind the table leaders. They started a catch up race after the winter break and finished the league campaign as runners-up, just one point behind champions FC Zürich. This was despite the fact that they defeated Zürich in three of the four direct matches during that league season. Basel missed their championship aim.

In the early rounds of the 2006–07 Swiss Cup Basel were drawn with away games against lower league teams. In the first round against local team FC Liestal and in the second against FC Lugano. Basel clearly won both ties. However, in the third-round game against FC Baulmes extra time was needed before the tie was decided. The quarterfinal was a home tie against FC Aarau and the semifinal an away tie against FC Wil. Both were mastered and Basel won the Cup by beating FC Luzern 1–0 in the Final. The winning goal in the Final came from the penalty spot through Daniel Majstorović in the 93rd minute. Basel achieved their aim.

FC Basel's European campaign started in the first qualifying stage of the UEFA Cup, here they beat Kazakhi side FC Tobol 3–1 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round they drawn against FC Vaduz from Liechtenstein, narrowly progressing on the away goals rule after a 2–2 aggregate draw. In the first round of the competition Basel were drawn against Macedonians FK Rabotnički. Basel won 6–2 at St. Jakob-Park and 1–0 at the Skopje City Stadium. Thus they qualified for the group stages where they faced tough opposition, Blackburn Rovers of England, AS Nancy of France, Feyenoord of The Netherlands and Wisła Kraków of Poland. Basel's first game was at home against Feyenoord. This ended with a respectable 1–1 draw. Their next group match was an away tie at Ewood Park against Blackburn Rovers. Basel played reasonably well but shaky defending towards the end of the game sealed their downfall.

Their next opponents were AS Nancy, a home game on 23 November. Basel went behind twice, but were able to draw level both times. Basel were pushing for the winning goal, as during the last minute of the game they were caught by a counterattack. Goalkeeper Franco Costanzo was only able to stop the Nancy attack by fouling Issiar Dia, which resulted in his sending off and a penalty against him. Basel had already used all three substitutes, therefore striker Mladen Petrić donned the goalkeeper shirt and stood between the posts. He was able to save the penalty kick taken by Mickaël Chrétien, thus helping his team to the 2–2 draw.[2]

Basel's last group game was against Wisła Kraków at the Wisła Stadium. FCB needed a win to qualify but their poor European campaign came to an end after losing 3–1 despite taking an early lead. Basel missed their aim to remain in European competition over the winter break.

Chairman	Mrs Gisela Oeri
Ground (capacity and dimensions)	St. Jakob-Park (42,500 / 120x80 m)

Source: Homepage FCB

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ARG Franco Costanzo 3 DF  BIH Damir Džombić 4 DF   SUI Michel Morganella 5 DF  SWE Daniel Majstorović (vicecaptain) 6 DF  JPN Kōji Nakata 8 MF  AUS Mile Sterjovski 9 MF  SRB Marko Perović 10 FW  CRO Mladen Petrić 11 MF  AUS Scott Chipperfield 12 MF  SEN Papa Malick Ba 15 MF  LIE Franz Burgmeier 17 MF  CRO Ivan Rakitić 18 GK  LBR Louis Crayton 19 DF  RSA Delron Buckley

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 MF  ECU Filipe Caicedo 21 DF  FRA François Marque 22 MF  SRB Ivan Ergić (captain) 23 FW  BRA Eduardo 28 DF   SUI Patrik Baumann 29 DF   SUI Simone Grippo 30 DF   SUI Boris Smiljanić 31 FW   SUI Eren Derdiyok 32 DF   SUI Reto Zanni (vicecaptain) 34 GK   SUI Oliver Stöckli — MF  GEO Mikhail Kavelashvili — MF  BRA Cristiano dos Santos Rodrigues — MF  SRB Zdravko Kuzmanović — FW  ARG César Carignano

• 1 Franco Costanzo
• 5 Daniel Majstorović
• 9 Marko Perović
• 10 Mladen Petrić
• 11 Scott Chipperfield
• 17 Ivan Rakitić
• 18 Louis Crayton
• 22 Ivan Ergić
• 31 Eren Derdiyok

Basel v Tobol Kostanay

13 July 2006 First qualifying first leg	Basel	3–1	Tobol Kostanay	St. Jakob-Park, Basel
19:30	Petrić  20', 67' Eduardo  69'	Report	Zhumaskaliyev	Attendance: 11,643 Referee: De Sousa (por)

Tobol Kostanay v Basel

27 July 2006 First qualifying second leg	Tobol Kostanay	0–0	Basel	Kostanay Central Stadium
		Report		Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Luc Wilmes (LUX)

Basel won 3–1 on aggregate.

Basel v Vaduz

10 August 2006 Second qualifying first leg	Basel	1–0	Vaduz	St. Jakob-Park, Basel
	Majstorović  58'	Report (in German)		Attendance: 14,296 Referee: Radek Matejek (CZE)

Vaduz v Basel

24 August 2006 Second qualifying second leg	Vaduz	2–1	Basel	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz
19:30	Sara  49' Ritzberger  63'	Report	Kuzmanović  56'	Referee: Mark Clattenburg

2-2 on aggregate, Basel win on away goals

Basel v Rabotnički

14 September 2006 First round first leg	Basel	6–2	Rabotnički	St. Jakob-Park, Basel
	Kuzmanović  2' Chipperfield  6' Majstorović  58' (pen.) Petrić  40' Cristiano  71', 73'	Report (in German)	Pejcic  89' Stojanov  92'	Attendance: 11,945 Referee: Alex Tudor, (Rumänien)

Rabotnički v Basel

28 September 2006 First round second leg	Rabotnički	0–1	Basel	Gradski Stadion, Skopje
		Report (in German)	75' Sterjovski	Attendance: 1,133 Referee: Richards (WAL)

Basel won 7–2 on aggregate.