VAR: Granit Xhaka's brother, Taulant involed in bizarre call during Basel vs Zurich | OneFootball

VAR: Granit Xhaka's brother, Taulant involed in bizarre call during Basel vs Zurich | OneFootball

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·8 May 2023

VAR: Granit Xhaka's brother, Taulant involed in bizarre call during Basel vs Zurich

Article image:VAR: Granit Xhaka's brother, Taulant involed in bizarre call during Basel vs Zurich

Taulant Xhaka, brother of Granit, has been involved in one of VAR’s strangest calls during Basel vs Zurich.

A game of little matter just floated by for 90 full minutes but then erupted into, well, just see for yourself.


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The Swiss Super League contest was composed of four red cards, with three of them coming for Xhaka’s Basel side.

Four minutes shy of the final whistle, Basel were reduced to 10 men when Kasim Adams received the first dismissal of the game.

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Seven minutes into stoppage time and Wouter Burger then picked up the home side’s second red card of the match. You can see a reoccurring theme happening here.

Zurich’s Mirling Kryeziu then picked up the visitor’s first and only red card of the game before fans were left bamboozled by what rolled out in front of their eyes.

Xhaka’s red card was the weirdest of the bunch and has now gone viral.

The Basel midfield destroyer is actually the older brother of Granit, and now we can see where he may have picked up some of his long-gone, ill-disciplined tendencies.

Video: One of the strangest VAR incidents we’ve seen

There are many important parts to this out-of-this-world situation.

Firstly, Taulant is given a second yellow card for his brutal headbutt on Nikola Katic, which is fairly reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane’s infamous red card for France.

The ex-Rangers defender was standing with his arms above his head as Xhaka produced his Zizou-inspired finisher, which sent the former sprawling to the ground.

He, therefore, received his marching orders deep into stoppage time and took off down the tunnel.

It turned out the forceful headbutt eventually became just a cliffhanger as more enticing aspects of this situation were still yet to come.

A VAR review of the incident then followed whilst he was off the field of play. His second yellow was then rescinded, following the referee’s review, and it was overturned into a straight red card.

Best of all, the 32-year-old had to return to the pitch having been in the dressing room already just to be shown the red card.

Maybe he thought his early shower was going to be taken back, so he could resume to play the dying embers of the game… surely not?

For all of VAR’s struggles, this moment will forever be remembered. It was the Swiss Klassiker after all, so there was bound to be some sort of drama.

Taulant Xhaka apologises via social media

Moments of madness happen to the best of us, and Xhaka’s situation is no different.

After his side’s 2-0 defeat, Granit’s brother took to social media to publicly apologise to the Basel supporters.

He wrote: “As an experienced player and captain of this team, I have a role model function, especially in difficult moments, which I unfortunately didn’t take advantage of in this situation.”

Basel were already two goals down at the point of his sending off, but his ill-tempered moment will now mean he will be unavailable for a while.

Now fifth in the table, Basel are now four points adrift of Europa League qualification and may have the recent Xhaka-based lunacy to thank for missing out.

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