Giménez goal rescues Basel

A second-half goal from Christian Giménez earned Swiss champions FC Basel 1893 a draw in their UEFA Cup first round first-leg encounter with FC Terek Grozny in Moscow after the Russian Cup holders had threatened to claim a surprise victory.

Bright start
Basel started brightly and looked the most likely team to score early on. After just four minutes they were unlucky not to take the lead when Giménez struck the post with a close-range header after Mile Sterjovski had nodded on a right-wing cross from Julio Rossi.

Bad weather
Torrential rain before and during the game had made the Lokomotiv stadium pitch, the venue for the game because of the political situation in Chechnya, tricky underfoot, and the home defence had some early problems keeping the Basel forward line at bay.

Giménez dangerous
Giménez was proving a real threat and he again went close in the ninth minute but his header was well held by Terek goalkeeper Volodymyr Savchenko at the second attempt.

Fedkov strikes
As the half progressed the home side came more into the game and they took the lead with their only real chance in the opening period. A superb through-ball from Aleksandr Smarko breached the Basel offside trap and Terek's top scorer Andrei Fedkov kept his cool to fire the ball past Pascal Zuberbühler in the Swiss side's goal.

Giménez levels
Basel pressed for an equaliser after the break and Giménez was frustrated by his shot hitting the side-netting before he eventually got the goal his forward play deserved. Scott Chipperfield's corner from the left was headed on by Rossi and Giménez was left unmarked three metres out to put the ball in with his knee.

More open
Both coaches made attacking substitutions during the second half with Terek's Voit Talgayev changing his formation by bringing on Vladimir Shipilov to support Fedkov. However, although the home side came much more into the game, defences largely remained on top despite the slippy conditions.

Terekhin chance
The longer the game went on, the more Terek looked likely to pinch a winning goal and their best chance came when substitute Oleg Terekhin fired his shot over the bar after a free-kick on the right had fallen nicely. In the end though, both sides looked content with a share of the spoils ahead of the return leg in a fortnight.