YB loses against Inter Milan with a goal in the 93rd minute

So the defender Sandro Lauper says after YB’s bitter 0-1 defeat against Inter Milan: “If you can still use Thuram and Martínez, then . . .» Yes, there is still a lot of danger for the opponent on the substitutes bench, it should be added.

The 27-year-old Lautaro Martínez is Argentine and became world champion in 2022. Last season he was top scorer in Serie A with 24 goals, and in the Argentine team he scored a goal in almost every other game. Marcus Thuram, also 27, is a French national player and was also present in the 2022 World Cup final.

And Federico Dimarco also comes onto the plastic turf in Bern. He has (tattooed) legs like tree trunks. For Dimarco, Christian Constantin, the president and transfer poker player of FC Sion, once conjured up a mysterious and incomprehensible amount of millions. Dimarco came to Sitten from Milan in 2017, after an injury and only nine Super League appearances he went back to Italy. At that time, his value rose to millions despite sheer doing nothing.

The prominent Inter substitute players combine to make it 1-0

Inter coach Simone Inzaghi initially puts the three – Thuram, Martínez and Dimarco – on the bench in Bern. This is also why the Young Boys have to talk afterwards about a missed coup, about a draw that slipped out of their hands in the last few seconds. The substitute trio combined to make it 1-0 in the 93rd minute. The goalscorer: Thuram.

Soon the match is over. A few YB players collapse to their knees, here and there disbelief and frustration spread. This is a blow that has to be digested first. During a phase of the season marked by uncertainty and a change of coach; after a Champions League match in which YB held up surprisingly well against an opponent who didn’t have the best line-up.

When YB goalie David von Ballmoos saved the foul penalty taken by Marko Arnautovic shortly after the break, Bern’s hope grew that they could leave the bottom of the table in the new Champions League that evening. YB doesn’t make any major defensive mistakes like in the first game against Aston Villa (0:3), YB didn’t lose early like in Barcelona (0:5). In the end, the Swiss champions only move up to second-to-last place in the premier class because Slovan Bratislava has the worse goal difference.

The draw would have been worth 700,000 euros

But Bern’s prospects are now improving because the three strongest opponents were waiting in the first three games. On November 6th, YB will play against Shakhtar Donetsk in Gelsenkirchen. This is not an overwhelming adversary. The Ukrainians have so far been awarded one point in the Champions League.

The late goal against Inter not only deprives YB of their first point, but also of 700,000 euros, which the draw would have been worth. But finances are not a priority for the club at the moment. There are other things under scrutiny. The search for stability, for dynamism, for peace and unity.

After the disappointment against Inter, Sandro Lauper emphasizes the fighting performance and not the playful performance, the match plan that almost worked. After the 2-1 win against FC Luzern last Saturday, interim coach Joël Magnin made no fewer than seven changes to the team, which is remarkable given the result.

He rotated like Inzaghi. But Magnin can’t talk about having spared his best resources. His team has too little hierarchy and leadership, too little structure, too little success. If the YB coach changes players during the current season, little changes on the pitch. There’s something there. Still. But not so much that someone is guaranteed a regular place.

This is an indication that the people of Bern thrive on a certain breadth of personnel, but also on arbitrariness and interchangeability. Magnin justifies the many changes by saying that he is only implementing what he told every player: “I’m counting on everyone. Everyone can show what they can do.”

Monteiro hits the post

With a little more luck, a real coup against Inter Milan would have been within reach – in the best case scenario, even victory and a bonus of 2.1 million euros. That was what was thought of when Joël Monteiro shot against the post after an hour of play. YB wasn’t that far away from Inter Milan, whose protagonists repeatedly made the topic of artificial turf, which was unfamiliar to them. It is not unreasonable to think that more would have been possible in another YB year.

But YB currently has to put the premier class aside anyway because there are important dates coming up in the championship: the match in Lugano on Sunday, the home game against FC Basel next Wednesday, before the trip to FC Zurich. The bottom of the Champions League table is bearable for the unstable Swiss champion, but not the one in the Super League.