Regrets 2 - 0 Clem (330388334)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 30501 at Theatre Of Dreams today. Leonard Pirchler was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jérôme Bessières and Gaetano Brönnecke. Regrets had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Leto - Luna, Vlahos, Serafini - Wider, Laenens, Gustavsson, Seber, Engel - Pérez Puig, Varlamov.

Clem started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players took the field: Quigley-Parks - Trombetta, Jespersson, Coll, Vaughan - Prendergast, Zachar, Pettersson, Shandy, Hodd - Hajós.

Regrets mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Clem used their ability to concentrate their attacks in the middle of the pitch, rather than on the wings. 14 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but F. Zachar, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. Regrets's A. Seber left the field after 17 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Y. Oximets. Halftime score was 0 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Regrets, with 53 percent of the ball.

After 54 minutes of play, M. Luna gave the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Y. Oximets's lack of experience almost gave Clem a goal after 59 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms. An equalising goal seemed certain after 61 minutes when F. Zachar attacked down the left wing, but Š. Leto just managed to make a save to keep the ball out of the net. The home side's B. Gustavsson came close to extending the lead 71 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but T. Quigley-Parks managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Regrets had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. Cheers filled the stadium as S. Laenens broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to Regrets. Confident in their lead, Regrets's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Clem, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Regrets claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

Regrets's top performer was clearly B. Gustavsson. On the other hand, Y. Oximets's play was disheartening. L. Hajós performed admirably for Clem. However, D. Prendergast made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 0.