Croatian 0 - 7 Jamoigne (282605670)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 14000 to SHAPE SPARTANS ARENA. Johan F. Wennstrand was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Wim Kuijl and Sjakie Franssen. Croatian tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Rancan - Iturrista, Szkołuda, Gervasi, Kaur - Kandel, Gregurec, Della Mea, Persson - Opačak, Carandil.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Jamoigne. Starters: Pla - Olechnowicz, Štrumbelj, Bošković - Häni, Mata, Hubert, Grooteman, Dempsey - Teglborg, Nellissen.

For their match strategy, Croatian had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. I. Hubert neatly controlled the ball after a short corner, and knocked it on to L. Mata who had the whole net open before him, but only managed to hit the post. After 20 minutes a very unfortunate collision in the penalty area led to Croatian's S. Iturrista being carried off the pitch and replaced by R. Perucha. The Jamoigne free kick 29 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 I. Hubert, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 0 - 1! G. Nellissen came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over P. Rancan but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. There was concern in the stands when, at the 39 minute mark, Croatian's P. Kaur hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. 42 minutes into the match, G. Nellissen came through the middle and almost added to his team's lead, but the shot went wide. With the clock showing 43 minutes played, a great pass from the defensive line of Croatian resulted in a counterattack that was smoothly brought under control by R. Kandel in the centre of the opposition's penalty area, but his finish went high. Croatian's R. Perucha made a successful breakthrough on the left after 44 minutes and should have levelled the score, but instead he clipped it over the bar. Jamoigne's I. Bošković got himself booked for a foul. With 44 minutes played, Jamoigne put themselves up 0 - 2 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was I. Hubert. After 44 minutes, Jamoigne's D. Dempsey burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 3. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 3. Jamoigne claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 77 percent.

N. Štrumbelj wanted to play on, but the Jamoigne coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 46 minutes into the game by M. Liljengren. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Jamoigne coach let H. Tortosa replace U. Teglborg after 46 minutes. The home crowd was not impressed when H. Tortosa came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 48 minutes. Jamoigne were now up 0 - 4. After 49 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave H. Tortosa a chance to increase the lead for Jamoigne, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 5. After this, you could see that the players of Jamoigne were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. U. Häni of Jamoigne took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 59 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 6. A penalty was missed by Jamoigne's U. Häni 81 minutes into the match. Probably overconfident, he blasted a hard shot miles outside of the left post. L. Mata received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 85 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 7. The Jamoigne fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. Jamoigne enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 77 percent of possession.

Croatian's best player was M. Opačak. However, V. Gregurec made a disastrous appearance. Most important Jamoigne player was G. Nellissen. H. Tortosa turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 7.