Gießen 5 - 0 Panschi (368919047)

The 18715 spectators at VfB Arena were in for an afternoon of sunshine. Che Harun bin Saad was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Pentti Vennonen and Gerlof Couwenberg. A 4-3-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Gießen. The following players had been chosen: Haber - Briones, Krehl, Paronen, Boguth - Dallery, Muzzu, Reilhofer - Mediero, Pantanella, Zorn.

Panschi had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Henriques - Fauconnier, Aburto, De Caro - Chávez, Wetzk, Mihaylov, Iriztain, Saari - Guinot, Shelyakov.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Gießen. 21 minutes into the game, V. Shelyakov had a great chance to put his team ahead, but his kick from the left went wide. After 22 minutes, the defensive line of Gießen created a counterattack through the middle that gave P. Reilhofer a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. After some beautiful movement down the left wing, P. Mediero scored for Gießen putting them ahead 1 - 0, after 28 minutes. Cheers filled the stadium as P. Reilhofer broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to Gießen. With 39 minutes played, K. Guinot had a fantastic opportunity to reply but his shot flew harmlessly into the side-netting of the goal. Gießen's P. Mediero swung in a good chance from the left, but the visitors' defence were able to clear the ball. 2 - 0 was the halftime score. Panschi had most of the ball, with 54 percent of possession.

Panschi needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 46 minutes V. Mihaylov made way for M. Pietzka. The intense heat forced H. Briones into making some errors because he couldn't seem to keep up with the others. Coming in on the left, K. Guinot did everything right to get a goal for Panschi after 51 minutes, but his finishing shot was stabbed clear by the keeper. Usually a powerful player on the field, P. Mediero looked kind of pale and tired under the hot sun. With 59 minutes played, Gießen put themselves up 3 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to J. Dallery, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. After this, you could see that the players of Gießen were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. With 77 minutes played, Gießen's R. Muzzu almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. With 78 minutes played, Gießen's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to C. Pantanella he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 4 - 0. C. Pantanella was in the clear after breaking the offside trap following a Gießen counterattack from the left after 80 minutes. His neat finish made the score 5 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Panschi, with 54 percent of the ball.

Gießen's best player was B. Zorn. On the other hand, H. Briones's play was disheartening. Most important Panschi player was V. Shelyakov. M. Pietzka was a disappointment, however. The match ends 5 - 0.