Chaussette 3 - 2 THESSALONIKI (394202245)

Dark skies made the crowd of 3352 at The Chaussette Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Konstantin Aumüller was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Manos Ampelakos and Ralph Douglas. Chaussette tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Vial - Pradel, Pasteur, Cabrera - Prigozhev, Fomin, Mardon, Martínez, Chramosta - Fillol, Martial.

THESSALONIKI decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Katsourinis - Paparetos, Artavanis, Pountos - Alexandrakis, Stefanakis, Sofos, Håkansson, Fiorenza - Kosmidis, Saravakos.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of THESSALONIKI. Down the middle came I. Kosmidis, making a fantastic play that nearly had THESSALONIKI take the lead after 10 minutes, but T. Vial preserved the tie. The Chaussette free kick 22 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of Y. Prigozhev, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 1 - 0! Things were going to get worse for the visitors. J. Chramosta squirmed through their central defence after 23 minutes, increasing the lead to 2 - 0. Chaussette put in a good effort on the right, but S. Mardon saw his volley fly wide of the mark 24 minutes into the game. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Chaussette had most of the ball, with 70 percent of possession.

The bench was restless, and with 46 minutes passed THESSALONIKI's coach gave S. Voulinos the opportunity the player had been hoping for. S. Katsourinis reluctantly left the field. With 50 minutes played, the THESSALONIKI coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. A. Stratakis came on, A. Sofos had to leave the fray. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, THESSALONIKI's I. Alexandrakis was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 52 minutes. D. Ramos Platón was given a chance to change things around. The goal for 2 - 1 was a funny story: after 52 minutes the seemingly nonchalant lob from THESSALONIKI's D. Ramos Platón landed at the feet of I. Kosmidis who sidefooted it into the net - nice goal! After 69 minutes, a well-worked counterattack by THESSALONIKI on the right presented an easy opportunity in front of the goal that was duly converted by V. Artavanis to make it 2 - 2. Chaussette made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left Y. Prigozhev completely alone with keeper S. Voulinos, who made a spectacular block. Almost all the way down to the corner flag, Chaussette's Y. Prigozhev somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for J. Chramosta, who struck for 3 - 2. Chaussette's J. Chramosta had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 77 minutes having been played. C. Monier was the replacement. Coming from the right, P. Pasteur almost managed to score another goal for Chaussette, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. After 83 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by S. Fomin might have resulted in another goal for Chaussette. However, S. Voulinos made a spectacular save. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Chaussette, with 66 percent of the ball.

Chaussette's top performer was clearly S. Mardon. F. Cabrera on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating THESSALONIKI player was without a doubt I. Kosmidis. P. Stefanakis was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 2.