Beautiful Basel and a 6 goal thriller
FC Basel 3 Liverpool 3, 12th November 2002
FC BASEL 3 (Rossi 2, Gimenez 22, Atouba 29)
LIVERPOOL 3 (Murphy 60, Šmicer 63, Owen 85)
Over two decades on from these 4 or 5 days crisscrossing the French/Swiss border I can’t recall exactly where on the outskirts of London I picked up code name “Buns” but I did, and the collective “we” then headed towards the cross channel ferry port of Dover. With a company car, a fuel card and several photocopied copies of our planned route, this was living the dream! The open road, a vitally important European football match for the Reds of Liverpool and two young lovers still tugging at the ribbons and bows of the honeymoon banners on their year long love affair to date. Buns was not an avowed Red when first we met but through my obsessive passion soon adopted the correct footballing faith and was more than happy to go along for the long ride into Switzerland. Working at the time on the edge of London as a “Runner” on a TV production which starred Simon Pegg and long before he became synonymous with films such as “Mission Impossible” and “Star Trek”, Buns took unpaid leave to guide us through the many mountain tunnels near the French/Swiss border and on through to the city of Basel.
The only hiccup on our outward journey to Basel was of my own making and one that still tickles me today, if only for it’s utter absurdity. Following the multiple printed copies of our route planner we hit the first of many French toll roads and as we inched, bumper to bumper with numerous other cars nearer to the toll booth window I spotted a permanently raised barrier. Then I made the mistake of spotting the Union Jack flag of the UK and, rather ridiculously assumed that any British drivers were free to waltz on through for free!
All perfectly rational as I’m sure you’ll agree.
So I sped toward the still upturned barrier and we were away, purring along the toll road with the Euro’s still in our pocket and a patriotic pride in our Nation! OK, not quite. But at the time, and until the very last time that bloody annoying French lady at the next toll booth screamed “TICKET!” at us, I thought I’d completed a perfectly rational driving task and taken the free ride afforded to all members of the British Empire. The lady in the ticket booth was apoplectic that we didn’t have a ticket!
“TICKET!” she wailed as we threw our collective arms up in befuddlement and probably paid twice what we should have, and just to avoid her screeching about a damn ticket any more!
We arrived without any further self imposed calamity in Basel late into the evening of the night before the game itself. The city was bustling with life and absent only one precious commodity, a hotel room. Whilst I parked up and watched with growing frustration yet slight amusement, Buns ventured from one “Establishment” to another in search of a hotel room and all to no avail. I can recall her now trudging in and out of these various places with a growing anger building inside her and a look of despondency at me at the lack of any vacancies at all. As we left Basel in the car to search elsewhere for a bed for the night we noticed that one particular place she tried had rather a penchant for hanging a red light in a window we hadn’t seen before, so it was perhaps for the best that we slept in a hotel on the French border and under the flight path into a nearby airport.
We weren’t really aware of the airport when we tried to check in, and roused the hotel owner from his slumbers. He came wearily to the door, almost as though admitting paying guests for the night was a chore and wasn’t in the least bit impressed with our smiling faces of utter relief that he actually had a room free and available. The owner held his obedient cat in his arms and after the intercom discussion we’d just had we assumed the word he was saying, but which we didn’t quite comprehend on the loudspeaker, was “cat”. As we tried to stroke this “cat” he spoke of, he angrily pointed at the “card” on the front door, meaning the card reader, the means of which allowed you automatic entry to a room on payment from your credit card.
Thus negating the necessity of disturbing the owner for a routine check in.
At way past mid-night.
With a cat in his arms.
And a rising fury in both his face and his voice.
Oh how we laughed the following morning as we recalled the owner’s bright red face and the aeroplanes seemingly coming into land about 3 feet from the hotel. We hailed a taxi and had to return for our passports as we were officially staying in France as opposed to Switzerland so we had in effect 4 journey’s in 1 attempt, but as we drank in the Swiss city of Basel it was worth the stop start nature to a day’s exploration of the city before the football later in the evening. I found Basel reminiscent of my trip to another Swiss town, Sion, 15 years earlier. Vibrant, colourful, respectful and welcoming. We simply ambled around for hours without a care in the world I would guess in retrospect. We found an incredibly busy bar and a more amenable empty shop nearby selling cut price beers and sat outside with hundreds of other Reds excited for the winner takes all game ahead.
After losing twice to the formidable and impressive Valencia under the watchful gaze of Rafa Benitez and eventual replacement of tonight’s Reds Boss, Gerard Houllier, in two years time, and a home draw with tonight’s opponents Basel, Liverpool’s task was crystal clear on this night. They simply had to win to progress past Basel in the Group Stage Table to join Valencia in the knock-out section of the Champions League. A draw or a defeat and they were out, so it really was winner takes all football and a de facto cup tie. Buns and I found our seats low down and right in the corner of the “Away” end of St Jakob-Park and marvelled at the noise and atmosphere being created by the capacity crowd of 35,000. We took up just one seating space rather than two as I stood for the entire game behind her, in that warming cuddle kind of embrace, and watched the game unfold over her shoulder.
Or was I watching it through my fingers into my utterly disbelieving eyes?
All 6 goals this evening were scored into the goal above and so 50/60 yards from our standing viewpoint. All 6, and 3 of which tumbled into the Liverpool net in just the opening 29 minutes of the game. The half an hour mark had not yet been reached and the Reds (in a rather pleasing Real Madrid evoking all white strip) were 3 goals down and already needing 4 (yes 4!) goals in 60 minutes or they would be unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions League (European Cup).
It took Basel just 2 minutes to take the lead through Julio Rossi after a smart one/two around the Liverpool penalty area left a simple cross for Rossi to tap into a virtually empty net and 20 minutes later the lead grew to 2–0 via his Argentine striking partner Christian Gimenez. A long goal kick from the Swiss goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuhler was headed on in the Liverpool half of the field before falling into the forward run of Gimenez who slotted the ball under the advancing Jerzy Dudek in the Liverpool goal.
A catastrophe was unfolding and just 7 minutes later it became Mission Impossible as Hakan Yakin’s free kick was well saved by Dudek but straight into the unmarked path of Timothee Atouba who slammed home the rebound and the Reds in All White were 3–0 down and going out of the Champions League.
Or were they?
GOAL! FC Basel 3 Liverpool 1 (Murphy 61 minutes)
It took Liverpool 16 2nd half minutes to score but it was a wonderful goal all the same and one that barely anyone celebrated as surely the cause was lost by now? Emile Heskey juggled the ball under control before slipping a pass into the Basel penalty area for Vladimir Šmicer who rolled a perfectly weighted pass in the direction of the onrushing Danny Murphy who side footed a gem of a controlled shot from the edge of the penalty area and into the corner of the Basel goal.
3 minutes later, it was about to get all rather interesting.
GOAL! FC Basel 3 Liverpool 2 (Šmicer 64 minutes)
A combination between Salif Diao and Michael Owen dropped into the path of Vladimir Šmicer who screwed a scruffy shot into Zuberbuhler’s near post and into the corner of the net. Unbelievably, with 2 goals in 3 minutes, the game was truly back on and Liverpool had 26 minutes in which to score a further 2 goals. Anything but that, or worse, meant elimination from the Champions League.
GOAL! FC Basel 3 Liverpool 3 (Owen 85 minutes)
With 5 minutes remaining Michael Owen first won a penalty for a blatant handball in the penalty area before missing the resultant penalty kick and then scoring from the rebounded save of Pascal Zuberbuhler! Liverpool had 5 minutes in which to score a 4th and winning goal but it was not to be and St Jakob Park erupted all around us as the Reds were if not now unceremoniously, still dumped out of the Champions League, into the UEFA Cup and a failed attempt to win that competition would end against Scottish friends and rivals Celtic FC the following year.
Buns and I negotiated a hairy and incredibly packed tram ride out of town before hailing a taxi to carry us back across the border to the hotel, our safely parked car and the start of a night’s driving back from whence we came just 2 days before. It was mid afternoon as I dropped Buns back to work with the rich and famous and I trooped home with the 7th European journey following the Reds of Liverpool under my belt.
I look on with envious eyes at every European trip now and I’m thankful I had a lucky seven of my own along the way.
“Beautiful Basel and a 6 goal thriller” also moonlights as chapter 43 in Act 2 of my first self-published book on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool entitled “Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles”. This was first published on 29th May 2023 and almost exactly a year to the day later I self-published my second book on Liverpool entitled “A final word from The Boss”.
I am incredibly proud of both of these books and have the pleasure of promoting and showing them off to you as well as not one but two Youtube channel readings of “Beautiful Basel and a 6 goal thriller” as the first video was recorded outside (somewhat spoiled by noise but the funnier and more relaxed of the two) but I re-recorded it a few days later anyway.
Altogether now — “TICKET!”
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Link to Amazon
"A final word from The Boss" - Link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.