Testuggine 2 - 3 Skillness (381999603)

9371 spectators had found their way to Mega, despite the heavy rain. Tim Klapproth was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Emre Kuzey and Lars Merbitz. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Testuggine. Starters: Parisi - Ragnling, Talmor, Caltran - Bisi, Bresci, Viviani, Modafferi - Mastroianni, Papapietro, Folco.

Skillness had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Grønlund - Malaganas, Cleven, Aronds - Sutton, Davato, Methler, Drogt, Csalogány - Buys, Conchillos.

I. Davato didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when F. Drogt was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 14 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! Some good play on the left wing created an opportunity for the visitors 19 minutes into the match, and G. Sutton wasn't about to let it go by. He got past the defenders and fired a shot that the keeper just missed. 0 - 1 for the visitors. Skillness increased the lead to 0 - 2 as F. Drogt scored from the penalty spot, putting the ball in near the top left corner. By now, the players in Skillness felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. Skillness claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 60 percent.

49 minutes into the game, H. Parisi had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came L. Zanatta. The rain made it hard for players like J. Conchillos to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. Skillness's T. Csalogány was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 75 minutes. After 76 minutes of game time, J. Conchillos had an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors' lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but L. Zanatta was in the right place and tipped the ball over for a corner. The home team's supporters got excited again when L. Papapietro broke through the visitors' central defence and caught their keeper off guard, making it 1 - 2. S. Malaganas received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 79 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 1 - 3. The Skillness fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. 89 minutes into the match, Testuggine's T. Talmor collected a ball sent down the right and put it in the back of the net, narrowing the score to 2 - 3. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Skillness, with 62 percent of the ball.

Testuggine's best player was C. Folco. L. Zanatta was a disappointment, however. Skillness's top performer was clearly F. Methler. However, S. Malaganas made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 3.