Northern Ireland v Switzerland 08SEPT

DOMESTIC • The Swiss Super League is a 10-team competition which has been played in its current format since the 2003-04 campaign. Currently one of those 10 clubs – Vaduz – hails from Liechtenstein. • Grasshopper, a team from Zurich, are the Swiss top flight’s most successful club having won 27 titles down the years – seven more than Basel . However, Grasshopper have not won the Swiss championship since 2003 and they spent two years in the second tier before winning promotion last term. • Bern-based club Young Boys have won the previous four championships. Last season they finished 31 points clear of second-placed Basel . But , now led by former Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner, they only took five points from their first four games this season. FC Zurich led the way entering this international window. • Former Switzerland international Marco Streller holds the record for the most Super League goals with 111 for Basel . • Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty spent the 2012-13 season with Super League club Sion, playing alongside ex-Rangers midfielder and World Cup winner Gennaro Gattuso. Lafferty scored eight goals in 28 appearances across all competitions for Sion. • In European competitions Basel have qualified for the group stage of the Champions League seven times – more than any other Swiss club. They have reached the last 16 on four occasions too, last doing so in the 2017-18 campaign when they beat Manchester United at home and finished second in the group. United’s rivals Manchester City ousted Basel 5-2 on aggregate in the last 16.

IRISHFA.COM

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