XPress 2 - 3 Smiths (298717312)

It was an exceptionally sunny day for the crowd of 11937 that came out to XPress Arena. Gwenaël Bezier was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jean-Pierre Gattlen and Alexander Hörnin. XPress started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Hjalmarsson - De Vroe, Biaggio, Ibañez Pacheco - Hyér, Påske, Landin, Seznec, Oittila - Bosko, Baiano.

Smiths tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Ingesson - Leschinski, Halewyck, Östner - Öhrgård, Aldrovandi, Gronsfeld, Burg, Parada - Åkerskär, Ljungen.

XPress saw most attack opportunities on the wings. J. Oittila would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. J. Hartin entered the game for XPress as the match clock showed 1 minutes. 1 minutes into the game, XPress wanted to bring some new energy to their game. N. Landin gave A. Hörning a quick hug as he left the field. 3 minutes in, XPress's L. Biaggio received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Down the middle came G. Aldrovandi, making a fantastic play that nearly had Smiths take the lead after 7 minutes, but M. Hjalmarsson preserved the tie. This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when G. Aldrovandi slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against M. Hjalmarsson, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. 0 - 0 was the halftime score. Smiths had most of the ball, with 67 percent of possession.

N. Baiano's speed is always a threat when he gets a little room to move, and 49 minutes into the match was no different as he broke free of his man to send a delightful through ball to W. Bosko who knocked it in for XPress. 1 - 0! Usually a powerful player on the field, A. Hörning looked kind of pale and tired under the hot sun. The home crowd was dismayed when the referee called a penalty for Smiths after 80 minutes. P. Leschinski calmly took the shot and scored. The game was level at 1 - 1. Smiths took the lead after 81 minutes making the score 1 - 2. E. Åkerskär placed the ball out of reach for the home side's keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. The intense heat forced N. Baiano into making some errors because he couldn't seem to keep up with the others. With the clock showing 84 minutes played, A. Hyér equalised for XPress after curling a free kick around the defensive wall to make the score 2 - 2. After 85 minutes, Smiths put themselves up 2 - 3, as M. Parada finished off a strike from the left with a real cannonball of a shot. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Smiths, with 71 percent of the ball.

The most dominating XPress player was without a doubt F. Påske. On the other hand, N. Baiano's play was disheartening. U. Gronsfeld performed admirably for Smiths. E. Åkerskär was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 3.