Hotspur 4 - 3 USpalermo (369196409)

The 34917 fans in attendance at Zurich Hotspur Arena were roasting in the hot sun. Kenneth Hansen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Claudio Belluzzo and John Nissen. All of Zürich was shut down for the day, as fans of both clubs came to the derby. Hotspur decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Allsop - van Bremen, Diamante, Zellweger - Forte, López Castro, Kindler, Hooijberg, Egloff - Skippari, Boulard.

USpalermo tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Ustariz - Boczkowski, Poons, Eygi - Palmieri, Braga Nunes, Galobart, Kjær, Vonlanthen - Legut, Krüger.

With 2 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, S. Kindler needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. USpalermo had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 24 minutes in when E. Boczkowski came up alone against C. Allsop who managed a block. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when E. Boczkowski was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 30 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! R. Legut of USpalermo displayed some of his fantastic technical abilities when he brought the ball down neatly using his instep before nutmegging the bewildered A. Zellweger and smashing an unstoppable shot past the goalkeeper to make it 0 - 1. USpalermo's M. Palmieri was shown a yellow card after 37 minutes for slicing down an opponent. The crowd roared in delight as S. Kindler finished off a spectacular series of passes through the middle to even the score for Hotspur 40 minutes into the match. 1 - 1. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Hotspur claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

60 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a Hotspur substitution. C. Amati came on for M. Boulard. C. Amati of Hotspur seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 2 - 1 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by A. Zellweger. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. A. Skippari squirmed through their central defence after 72 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 1. After 74 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and G. Hooijberg gave the Hotspur supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 1. USpalermo were desperate to get a goal back and pushed forward through the middle 77 minutes into the game. After a scramble in the box, the ball dropped to S. Eygi, who smashed it home to make the score 4 - 2. The visitors replied 79 minutes into the game, reducing the home side's lead to 4 - 3, as R. Legut dashed up the middle, easily lobbing the ball over the home team's keeper. It was a hot and sunny day, and several players seemed worn out. Maybe this was why R. Legut found an unusual amount of space for his snappy footwork. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Hotspur, with 53 percent of the ball.

Hotspur's top performer was clearly A. Skippari. A. Zellweger on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating USpalermo player was without a doubt E. Krüger. E. Poons turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 4 - 3.