Football: Sion wins and ends a three-month drought

Three months. Or 92 days and nights. Or nine Super League championship matches. Here, in different forms, is the series which FC Sion ended by winning on Sunday afternoon against Lucerne in its Tourbillon stadium (4-2). The team coached by Didier Tholot had only returned draws (5 times) and setbacks (4 times) since August 10 and its 2-0 success against Winterthur.

In front of their home crowd, the Valaisans went through an anthology of emotions against opponents who had grabbed eight points more than them at the time of kick-off. They exuded joy and confidence after a simply idyllic start to the game.

Dejan Sorgic opened the scoring before all the spectators were seated by punctuating a triangulation initiated by Ilyas Chouaref and relayed with a header by Liam Chipperfield (2nd). And, at the end of a three-on-two break, Chouaref thwarted the vigilance of Pascal Loretz with a shot taken about twenty meters from the target (2-0 in the 18th minute).

They were then filled with doubt when, after making their five changes at the break (!), Mario Frick’s Lucerne got back on track thanks to two surgical successes from their Togolese international Thibault Klidjé (49th and 59th).

They once again showed self-sacrifice because, rather than fearing losing and giving up the ball and territory to their tough opponents, they sought to win. And this state of mind was rewarded, Löfgren deflecting a cross from Chouaref into his own net (3-2 in the 61st), several Sédunois missing opportunities to create the break before Chouaref, again, did so at the 90th.

They finally jubilant and communicated with their fans by breathing a big sigh of relief. The two-week truce will certainly be more joyous with this result.