as seen on au.fourfourtwo.comNorth Queensland Fury target Scott Chipperfield came off the bench to score a crucial winner for FC Basel as they defeated Swiss Super League leaders FC Zürich 2-1 on Sunday.
Socceroo Chipperfield was making his first appearance for Basel since mid-December and came on as a 59th minute substitute before heading home an important goal 12 minutes from time.
The 33-year-old, who recently played in Australia's World Cup qualifier in Japan, had actually missed Basel's first two matches since the resumption of the Super League season after the winter break due to a lingering foot complaint.
But he marked his return in style with the winning goal in a huge match, after Eric Hassli had put Zürich ahead early in the first-half before Basel's Jürgen Gjasula levelled the match ten minutes into the second-half.
Both sides had a player sent off in the second-half before Chipperfield rose above Zürich defender Hannu Tihinen and headed Benjamin Huggel's cross past Johnny Leoni for the matchwinner.
In the context of the season the goal was massive for Basel too, who now move to within two points of leaders Zürich whilst maintaining second position ahead of improving Young Boys.
Speaking after the game Chipperfield said: "To come on and score was great, but just to get some game time, I was happy with that.
"And to get the three points in a big game for us, if we had lost today it would have made it very hard in terms of the championship but now it's only two points and we've still got a long way to go so we have to keep working hard."
With 15 matches to go in the Swiss Super League season, Zürich lead the way on 44 points ahead of reigning champions Basel in second on 42 points while Young Boys loom large in third on 41 points.
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