The Champions League still does not smile on Young Boys this fall. In Gelsenkirchen, the Bernese suffered a fourth consecutive defeat by losing 2-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk.
The only positive point is that Young Boys finally scored their first goal in this League phase. Kastriot Imeri opened the scoring in the 27th, taking advantage of an error from Artem Bondarenko on the restart. The Bernese advantage, however, was very short-lived.
While they were down to 10 men due to treatment given to Loris Benito, Joël Magnin’s men conceded Oleksandr Zubkov’s equalizer in the 31st minute. Author of the decisive pass, the talented Heorhiy Sudakov then turned into a scorer thanks to a beautiful cross strike (41st).
Some occasions
Long dominated and close to conceding a third goal, the visitors raised their heads in the last 20 minutes. In turn, they showed themselves to be dangerous several times, thanks to the power of Joël Monteiro in particular, but they could not avoid another defeat.
Once again, YB paid a heavy price for injuries. Benito and Michaël Lauper – who formed the central hinge at kick-off – both had to come off during the match, further decimating the defensive sector of the Swiss champions. Young left-back Rhodri Smith (18) made his first team debut.
It doesn’t take a great guesser to say that Young Boys’ hopes of securing a place among the top 24 in the League now seem extremely slim. On the next day on November 26, the Bernese will host Atalanta.
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