Yakin: It was not our best day

Basel head coach Murat Yakin believes there is plenty of room for improvement in his side, after watching them go down 1-0 to Schalke.

Marco Streller wasted several good opportunities for Basel in front of their home crowd during the first half, before Julian Draxler’s stunning half-volley secured the win for the German visitors.

After an impressive 2-1 win away to Chelsea on the opening UEFA Champions League matchday, Tuesday’s loss was a hard one to take for Basel and Yakin was particular frustrated by his side’s failure to break down a resolute Schalke defence.

“We tried to play but they made it difficult for us and we were a little imprecise in the final third,” Yakin said.

“It was not our best day today and unfortunately our offensive players were not at their best.

“Expectations were very high but we always have pressure, that was not the problem.”

Draxler’s goal was the direct result of a Dennis Aogo corner and Yakin believes his team’s concentration while defending set-pieces was in need of improvement.

“We must learn to behave better at defensive set pieces against us as we found no remedy against Schalke,” Yakin said.

Basel travel to Romania in their next game in Group E, to take on bottom-placed Steaua Bucherest, who were thumped 4-0 by Chelsea.