Lugano beat Thun 1-0 at the Stockhorn Arena on Saturday evening when Ezgjan Alioski converted a penalty in the 97th minute, knocking fc thun’s title hopes off course.
More than 10,000 spectators — officially 10'014 — watched the late drama unfold. The single goal settled a game Thun had to win to become Swiss champions for the first time in the club’s history, and it arrived only after referee Cibelli paused play to review the incident on the monitor.
The penalty was awarded after Valmir Matoshi fouled Mahmoud inside the box; Cibelli checked the replay before pointing to the spot and Alioski made no mistake from the spot in the dying seconds. The result gave Lugano a 1-0 victory — their third straight 1-0 win over Thun this season — and made Lugano the first team in the league to finish with a positive record against Thun.
The match began badly for Thun inside the first minute, when defender Montolio suffered a knee injury and had to leave the field. Montolio was replaced by Dähler in the fifth minute, forcing an immediate reshuffle to a side that so often relied on a settled back line. Thun’s starting XI read N. Steffen, Bamert, Montolio, Bürki, Heule, Bertone, Käit, Fehr, Imeri, Ibayi and Rastoder.
Lugano went out with Von Ballmoos in goal and a backline of Papadopoulos, Mai and Delcroix. Zanotti, Bislimi, Grgic and Cimignani held the midfield; R. Steffen, Koutsias and Daniel Dos Santos led the attack. That XI held firm until the late intervention that decided the game.
Assurances that a title party might be possible at the Stockhorn Arena evaporated as the final whistle blew. Local reporting noted there would be no championship celebration Saturday evening after Lugano's win, and described Alioski’s penalty as a party-crashing moment for the Thun faithful.
Context matters: Thun had needed a win at home to clinch the club’s first league crown outright. With Saturday’s defeat, Thun’s fate moves off their own field: if they fail to take three points, St. Gallen can still influence the outcome on Sunday when they face Young Boys. The wider league picture — involving St. Gallen, Lugano, Basel, Sion and YB in the fight for European places — now remains unsettled and will be shaped by results in the final round.
The key tension from the match is the manner of the decision. A late penalty after a monitored VAR review handed victory to the visitors and left home supporters and players searching for answers. Thun produced the lineup and the early lineup disruption that suggested their path to a first title would be hard; the penalty call in stoppage time made it impossible.
For Thun, the immediate consequence is blunt: the club’s first championship is postponed. For Lugano, the win is confirmation — a third consecutive 1-0 success over Thun and a psychological edge in a season where they now boast a positive head-to-head record against their rivals. The single, decisive fact of the night is simple and irreversible: Alioski’s 97th-minute penalty ended Thun’s home celebration, and left the title race to be decided elsewhere.
