Khihot 2 - 4 Sick`brain (351639861)

The crowd of 59632 turning up at Khihot Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Abel Coelho was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Asbjørn Enemark and Bronisław Jacniacki. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Khihot. Lineup: Kuret - Grude, Flanquart, Curvas - Santner, Teivainen, Davis, Vilasantar, Antenen - Ábelovszki, Granling.

Sick`brain decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. The following players took the field: Švenda - Arteche, Grigorov, Merdi, Stoyanov - Rättyä, Nedyalkov, Mukov, Andreev - D'Alessio, Heine-Vāgners.

Sick`brain were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Sick`brain's J. Arteche got himself booked for a foul. The corner kick from G. Davis was powerfully met by the head of H. Vilasantar to make the score 1 - 0. The visitors didn't give in and, after 27 minutes, R. D'Alessio got through the home side's central line of defence, rolling in the equaliser to make it 1 - 1. The referee showed Khihot's T. Teivainen the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Slack defending gave Khihot a chance to take the lead with 30 minutes played, but W. Santner's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. E. Flanquart was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. 35 minutes into the match, the visiting Sick`brain made the score 1 - 2 after A. Grigorov executed a perfect free kick. G. Antenen spent most of the time in a heap on the ground today, his normally rapid movement hindered by the slippery pitch. Khihot's E. Flanquart was shown a yellow card after 38 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A. Mukov received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 38 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 1 - 3. The Sick`brain fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. A late sliding challenge from J. Arteche was deemed to be his second yellow card offence by the referee, resulting in him being sent off, and Sick`brain left a man down. 1 - 3 was the score after the first half. Possession in this half belonged to Khihot, who controlled the ball 68 percent of the time.

With 47 minutes played, E. Flanquart was very close to reducing the score for Khihot with a low drive from the left, but a defender stuck his foot out just in the nick of time, blocking the shot to a corner. The crowd groaned when H. Vilasantar, having maneuvered his way down the right, fired the ball just wide and missed a great opportunity to reduce the deficit for Khihot. Khihot's P. Granling cut towards the middle after 78 minutes, receiving a brilliant pass and slicing through the visiting team's central defence, reducing the lead to 2 - 3. After 81 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for S. Heine-Vāgners who increased Sick`brain's lead to 2 - 4. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Khihot, with 69 percent of the ball.

Khihot's best player was M. Ábelovszki. However, G. Antenen made a disastrous appearance. Most important Sick`brain player was R. D'Alessio. A. Grigorov on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 4.