V-TEL 4 - 2 Aussenstelle (368922487)

Dark skies made the crowd of 18327 at V-TEL Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Kostas Chatzimanolis was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Daniel Minga and Štefan Kašiar. V-TEL started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Rousseau - Pektaş, Cassan, Reiser, Lindhhall - Torsson, Dzintars, Čarić, Frittoli - Rizzatti, Maksimov.

Aussenstelle tactics involved an interesting 5-3-2 combination. They fielded: Zitman - Schmatz, Batzel, Neider, Hergershausen, Weiland - Pfuderer, Stickroth, Nuebler - Makaroff, Lantis.

Aussenstelle clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. A questionable penalty 3 minutes in gave the home side the lead, 1 - 0. The visitors' goalie didn't stand a chance as M. Frittoli knocked the ball home. 6 minutes in, V-TEL's A. Dzintars received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Aussenstelle will have to do without R. Zitman for a time, due to a bad foot injury at the 9 minute mark. He was substituted by W. Meyermann. B. Schmatz behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 11 minutes as he gave the ball away to M. Frittoli. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. After 26 minutes, a well-worked counterattack by Aussenstelle on the right presented an easy opportunity in front of the goal that was duly converted by M. Makaroff to make it 1 - 1. The referee showed V-TEL's U. Torsson the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave O. Maksimov from V-TEL a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 36 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! After some beautiful movement down the left wing, O. Maksimov scored for V-TEL putting them ahead 2 - 1, after 37 minutes. V. Rousseau's name was chanted throughout the stadium after he made a fantastic save from M. Makaroff's shot from the left 39 minutes into the match. M. Frittoli increased V-TEL's lead to 3 - 1 with a penalty spot cannonball. It was 3 - 1 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to V-TEL, who controlled the ball 66 percent of the time.

A counterattack by Aussenstelle after 63 minutes could have resulted in a goal, but M. Makaroff, coming in on the left, couldn't get the shot off. After 68 minutes, O. Maksimov put V-TEL ahead 4 - 1 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. Aussenstelle caught their opponents out with a clever counterattack down the right wing 75 minutes into the match. T. Lantis was able to finish off the move - 4 - 2. V-TEL's A. Čarić was shown a yellow card after 81 minutes for slicing down an opponent. V-TEL enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 65 percent of possession.

The most dominating V-TEL player was without a doubt O. Maksimov. However, P. Lindhhall made a disastrous appearance. G. Neider performed admirably for Aussenstelle. W. Meyermann on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.