Bitgol 3 - 2 lopu (366398752)

The 22103 fans in attendance at Ludzas Varpa were roasting in the hot sun. Kornél Bartha was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Frano Berović and Ricardo Jorge Baía. Bitgol decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. Lineup: Arturi - Averre, Lipponen, Fusco, Foster - Danis, Vivona, Place, Vitiello - Grobiņš, Ruby.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for lopu. They fielded: Rajala - Vergelis, Enzerink, Agiriano - Gerards, Honrath, Murugov, Zīle, Veckungs - Lattimer, Gorenčič.

Bitgol were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. lopu clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. 9 minutes into the match and the home team took a 1 - 0 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Bitgol was R. Vivona. A. Place of Bitgol was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave M. Murugov from lopu a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 22 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! M. Arturi of Bitgol had to be helped off the pitch as an injury meant he was unable to finish the game. N. Kjeldgaard came in to finish the match. 24 minutes into the game lopu's R. Zīle found a gap in the home side's central defence and scored with a fabulous shot, making it 1 - 1. lopu had a great opportunity to score following a counterattack after 32 minutes, but K. Veckungs's shot from the left sailed high over the bar. 1 - 1 was the halftime score. Bitgol had most of the ball, with 59 percent of possession.

C. Danis wasn't much help defensively. His energy-consuming forward runs proved quite costly in the oppressive heat. Bitgol made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left C. Foster completely alone with keeper I. Rajala, who made a spectacular block. The goal to make it 1 - 2 was scored by D. Gerards after 53 minutes, following an opportunistic counterattack down the middle by lopu. T. Honrath enjoyed the sunshine and demonstrated his stunning technique over and over again. Bitgol's H. Lipponen put his head to a well placed ball, lifted in from the left, and scored to make the score 2 - 2 with 84 minutes showing on the scoreboard clock. Players in Bitgol heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. Bitgol could have put themselves ahead after 85 minutes but B. Ruby missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. At 86 minutes played, A. Place came in from the right with the intention of giving Bitgol the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to I. Grobiņš, but the Bitgol player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 3 - 2! Possession in this half belonged to Bitgol, who controlled the ball 64 percent of the time.

Bitgol's best player was G. Fusco. N. Kjeldgaard was a disappointment, however. S. Gorenčič performed admirably for lopu. However, T. Honrath made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 2.