-----PiT----- 3 - 3 SIEKIERA (371882300)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 20238 had shown up at ERGO Arena for the match. Mack Kaplan was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Christer Robertsson and Walter Gröpelingen. -----PiT----- started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Grebenstein - Selle, Eikauskas, Palsio - Schreier, Allaert, van der Leek, Fernández de la Cruz, Palming - Binkiewicz, Kanicki.

SIEKIERA tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. They fielded: Păuceanu - Flejszman, Kaczmarzyk - Zowada, Correia, Cabánik, Łyczewski, Saurenmann - Dmochowski, Gell, Lasfargues.

-----PiT----- seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. It was an obvious ambition of SIEKIERA to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. -----PiT----- were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. P. Palming caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 5 minutes. This gave -----PiT----- the 1 - 0 lead. The visiting team's S. Łyczewski was able to score the 1 - 1 equaliser with a header 18 minutes into the match, after some good work on the right. 28 minutes into the game, a swerving free kick by P. Palming almost resulted in the home team taking the lead, but the shot glanced harmlessly off the frame of the goal. -----PiT----- had to make a substitution after 29 minutes. H. Palsio limped off the field and was replaced by L. Swett. After 30 minutes, A. Fernández de la Cruz came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 2 - 1, giving -----PiT----- the lead. It was 2 - 1 at the break. -----PiT----- enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 53 percent of possession.

With 46 minutes played, the SIEKIERA coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. R. Hastings came on, M. Correia had to leave the fray. After 53 minutes, SIEKIERA sent a free kick in high over the penalty box. In what looked like a well-rehearsed move, the ball was headed backwards and reached D. Gell, who had plenty of space to place a well aimed shot - 2 - 2. -----PiT-----'s P. Palming got himself booked for a foul. Slack defending gave -----PiT----- a chance to take the lead with 74 minutes played, but A. Fernández de la Cruz's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to Z. Binkiewicz, but the -----PiT----- player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 3 - 2! After 78 minutes, the visitors tied it up at 3 - 3 when a fantastic pass from the left was finished off by C. Saurenmann. 81 minutes in, -----PiT-----'s A. Selle received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. In a fantastic display of determination, SIEKIERA's D. Păuceanu forced himself to his feet, after an opponent viciously knocked him down. 83 minutes into the game, P. Cabánik was a hair's breadth away from giving SIEKIERA the lead with a shot from over on the left. A prompt block by A. Grebenstein saved the home team that time. A. Kanicki would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. K. Moc entered the game for -----PiT----- as the match clock showed 85 minutes. Possession in this half belonged to -----PiT-----, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time.

The most dominating -----PiT----- player was without a doubt F. Allaert. A. Selle was a disappointment, however. W. Dmochowski performed admirably for SIEKIERA. K. Flejszman on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 3.