THUN, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss soccer finally got its surprise champion Sunday in unheralded Thun, sealing a title to compare with Leicester’s long-shot Premier League win in 2016.
Thun clinched a first Swiss league title in the club’s 128-year history — despite losing games on the past two Saturdays — when second-place St. Gallen dropped points in a 3-0 loss hosting Sion.
That left Thun, coached by former star forward Mauro Lustrinelli, 11 points clear with three rounds to go.
The title came in Thun’s first season back in the top tier after five years in the second division. The team from a central Switzerland town of 45,000 people also never won a Swiss Cup title.
The final step was a nervous one for Thun when victory in either of its past two games would have confirmed the title. A 3-1 loss Saturday at defending champion Basel, ending with nine players after two red cards, followed a 1-0 loss at home to Lugano one week earlier.
Lustrinelli and his squad were at the team's stadium Sunday afternoon to watch a broadcast of the St. Gallen game and were joined by thousands of fans for the celebration that followed.
Thun has a long path to competing with Europe's elite in the next Champions League, where the club made an unlikely appearance in 2005 after being runner-up in the Swiss league.
The champion of Switzerland now enters the second qualifying round of the Champions League in July — starting two days after the World Cup final. Thun needs to beat three opponents to advance to the main phase.
Thun is unlikely to have any player selected for a World Cup squad though 20-year-old midfielder Ethan Meichtry is a Switzerland Under-21 international with a bright future.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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