O.M. 1 - 4 Basten (381878406)

16909 punters turned up at Sporting Passerotto Arena, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Heine Bruun was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Soli Levi and Carl Lewis. O.M. decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Tesi - Contini, Oppelt, Marazzina - Pedri, Camarda, Vavassori, Forte, Ricchetti - Ubera, Scavo.

Basten had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. Lineup: Mehrower - Hälmle, Maiolo, Frischmann, Rivoire - González-Llano, Ehemann, Eschelmueller, Amoruso, Leutloff-Hörning - Ropert.

O.M. mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Basten saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for O.M., as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. O.M. took the lead after 27 minutes as a result of N. Oppelt's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. One of many good crosses from F. González-Llano on the wing was received and skillfully taken care of by J. Ropert, who scored for Basten. 1 - 1 O.M. made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left P. Pedri completely alone with keeper I. Mehrower, who made a spectacular block. 1 - 1 was the score after the first half. Possession in this half belonged to O.M., who controlled the ball 60 percent of the time.

Attacking on the wings was the choice for Basten, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Basten's A. Maiolo after 47 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 1 - 2 lead. The home keeper was stunned 76 minutes into the match when he misjudged the free kick by J. Ropert and dived in the wrong direction. The visitors increased the lead to 1 - 3. After 81 minutes G. Camarda could have reduced the lead with a blistering strike from the left wing, had it not been for an excellent block by the visitors' keeper. With 83 minutes played, H. Eschelmueller of Basten fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Good work by the Basten defensive line after 85 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found P. Amoruso alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. With 86 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed F. Leutloff-Hörning of Basten to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 1 - 4. Confident in their lead, Basten's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. D. Scavo of O.M. was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. O.M. enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 61 percent of possession.

O.M.'s best player was P. Vavassori. On the other hand, S. Contini's play was disheartening. Most important Basten player was J. Ropert. I. Mehrower turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 4.