Arkadiosenal 1 - 6 SOPOT (392480064)

21281 spectators had come to KSA Arena this cloudy day. Norbert Berghoff was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Paul Bieber and Joonas Heinloo. Arkadiosenal decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Heikkinen - Smidemann, Schmidtke, Bãtrînu - Biçici, De Carli, Hovi, Moreolo, Uther - Ozdarski, Ranocchi.

SOPOT tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. The following players took the field: Rinaudo - Meynard, De Bonis - Czyżkowski, Ovsinskis, Vener, Matei, Bareck - Piotr, Komoda, Michta.

Arkadiosenal mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. D. Piotr came close to putting the visiting team one up 15 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but O. Heikkinen managed to tip the ball to a corner. SOPOT took the lead after 22 minutes making the score 0 - 1. M. Vener placed the ball out of reach for the home side's keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. Just a few inches to the right, and the visitors could have had a goal 35 minutes into the match. M. Vener surely wishes he could do that free kick over again. The referee showed SOPOT's J. Ovsinskis the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. O. Heikkinen of Arkadiosenal had to be helped off the pitch as an injury meant he was unable to finish the game. G. Polański came in to finish the match. P. Czyżkowski of SOPOT took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 38 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 2. The visitors' J. Ovsinskis took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 40 minutes into the match. 0 - 3 for SOPOT. It was 0 - 3 at the break. SOPOT claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 59 percent.

Arkadiosenal's E. Biçici cut towards the middle after 50 minutes, receiving a brilliant pass and slicing through the visiting team's central defence, reducing the lead to 1 - 3. After 59 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave P. Czyżkowski a chance to increase the lead for SOPOT, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 1 - 4. With 62 minutes played, F. De Bonis nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. Arkadiosenal needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 69 minutes E. Biçici made way for C. Betta. 70 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 1 - 5 as K. Michta finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. The Arkadiosenal coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. After 74 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for K. Michta who increased SOPOT's lead to 1 - 6. By now, the players in SOPOT felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Arkadiosenal's J. Hovi was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 76 minutes. E. Ballegaard was given a chance to change things around. SOPOT had most of the ball, with 63 percent of possession.

Arkadiosenal's top performer was clearly M. Moreolo. On the other hand, G. Polański's play was disheartening. SOPOT's best player was J. Ovsinskis. D. Piotr was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 6.