Engelen 2 - 3 Chiquitin (362407715)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 3540 at Luigi Gaglione Arena today. Notis Kalvos was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Manuel Turke and Semen Avgustov. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Engelen. The following players had been chosen: Menina - Contreras, Adami, Silva, Piciu - Monteno, Almanza, Bratlie, Palmroos, Jarmer - Suvi.

Chiquitin started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. The following players took the field: Desmet - Fjällstrand, Stonndal - Serra, Gavalopoulos, Güraslan, Sippari, Van Woensel - Felip, Parra, Hentze.

Today, Engelen's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Engelen took the lead 32 minutes in, as E. Suvi broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Engelen to 2 - 0 as S. Bratlie finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. The players of Engelen now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Chiquitin were desperate to get a goal back and pushed forward through the middle 37 minutes into the game. After a scramble in the box, the ball dropped to T. Güraslan, who smashed it home to make the score 2 - 1. The Chiquitin free kick 38 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 J. Felip, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 2 - 2! The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 2. Chiquitin enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

54 minutes had elapsed when a great chance for Engelen to take the lead after a good cross from the right found F. Contreras alone with the keeper, but he chipped it to the wrong side of the post. A badly positioned defensive formation on a free kick after 64 minutes led to Chiquitin's M. Parra giving the visitors the lead 2 - 3. M. Gavalopoulos behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 65 minutes as he gave the ball away to J. Almanza. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. With 70 minutes played, F. Contreras of Engelen fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Chiquitin claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

Engelen's top performer was clearly M. Adami. V. Menina on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Chiquitin player was without a doubt M. Hentze. T. Fjällstrand turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 3.