SMC14 5 - 2 Grenoble (370362683)

Clear skies welcomed the 23717 spectators who had made their way to D'Ornano. Danilo Angiozzi was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Cor Brandt and Mathias Gervaise. SMC14 decided to use a 3-4-3 set up. The following players took the field: Pauwels - Ménard, Solomon, Hellkvist - Damsbo, Pasternak, Scalambrieri, McCarthy - Tameş, Cuitaví, Lhermitte.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Grenoble. Lineup: Vigouroux - Lietard, Fleurence, Guillerme, Lemarie - Clerbout, Boué, Sall, Lauret - Ramos, Raux.

SMC14 mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Grenoble. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to R. Tameş, but the SMC14 player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! SMC14's R. Tameş was shown a yellow card after 34 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A loud groan was heard from the fans of Grenoble, as T. Raux left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. J. Loreto took his place on the field. After 36 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by R. Tameş might have resulted in another goal for SMC14. However, E. Vigouroux made a spectacular save. Cheers filled the stadium as N. Damsbo broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to SMC14. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. C. Cuitaví squirmed through their central defence after 43 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 0. After this, you could see that the players of SMC14 were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in SMC14's M. McCarthy increasing the lead to 4 - 0. 4 - 0 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by SMC14, with 60 percent of the ball.

N. Damsbo wanted to play on, but the SMC14 coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 46 minutes into the game by B. Diabi. Content with how the game was proceeding, the SMC14 coach let A. Rault replace C. Cuitaví after 46 minutes. The SMC14 players could smell victory in the air. J. Pauwels wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for M. Duplessis after 46 minutes. After 55 minutes Grenoble tried to exploit their counterattacking skills, unfortunately, V. Lauret's shot sailed wide after his break down the right. Grenoble reduced the lead after 71 minutes to 4 - 1 as S. Boué easily chipped the ball past the home side's keeper after a dazzling play from the right. The score became 5 - 1 at 74 minutes into the game, when SMC14 were given a penalty which M. McCarthy blasted straight down the middle giving the keeper no chance! After 85 minutes Grenoble's F. Lemarie limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. With 86 minutes showing on the scoreboard clock, Grenoble showed some good skill and were able to reduce the score to 5 - 2 when V. Lauret got past the home side's central defenders right in front of the goal. SMC14 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 57 percent.

SMC14's top performer was clearly R. Tameş. M. Duplessis turned in a dismal performance, however. O. Ramos performed admirably for Grenoble. E. Vigouroux on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 5 - 2.