Magical 4 - 4 Köln (368753320)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 44407 at The Magical Arena today. Yair Liberman was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ragnar Østbergh and Orstas Kondratiukas. Magical had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Schmelinger - Cernedo, Pihelgas, Fountopoulos - Pachota, Gorostidi, Obermeier, Msallem, Montalvo - Teeninga, Mitykó.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Köln. Starters: Schaberick - Lehrberger, Pennartz, Padberg - Lassen, Ertel, Altıntop, Dieckhoff, Povinský - Weltzien, Höcht.

Magical were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Magical, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. Magical broke through on the left 21 minutes into the game, with N. Mitykó firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. After 37 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and H. Msallem gave the Magical supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 2 - 0. Coming from the right, D. Gorostidi almost managed to score another goal for Magical, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Magical claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

It was obvious that Magical had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. H. Msallem increased the lead for Magical to 3 - 0, getting a head onto a hooked ball from the right. The ball looked to have taken a deflection on the way in, but he's claiming it! A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Magical to 4 - 0 as H. Msallem finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. That made three goals for H. Msallem and he was marked down for the hat trick. 69 minutes in, an amazing pass from the left side resulted in a goal for the visitors, as M. Weltzien anticipated the through ball and scored, reducing the deficit to 4 - 1. A great save by keeper E. Schaberick after 73 minutes kept the visitors in the game after N. Mitykó struck from the left with a real cannonball. A bit later, Köln's M. Altıntop easily reduced the lead to 4 - 2 after a misunderstanding in the home side's central defence. After 75 minutes a very unfortunate collision in the penalty area led to Köln's B. Lehrberger being carried off the pitch and replaced by D. Rahlstedter. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, J. Lassen took over the role of being the Köln captain. D. Gorostidi had a fantastic opportunity to put Magical up another goal 79 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. Köln managed to reduce the score to 4 - 3 as M. Weltzien finished off a well-played combination from the left, easily carving through the defence. After 88 minutes, the visitors tied it up at 4 - 4 when a fantastic pass from the left was finished off by J. Lassen. Magical had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Magical's top performer was clearly N. Teeninga. A. Cernedo was a disappointment, however. The most dominating Köln player was without a doubt B. Höcht. On the other hand, E. Schaberick's play was disheartening. The match ends 4 - 4.