Artistic 1 - 0 Zlatan (374697104)

The 46417 spectators at Stade di Art were in for an afternoon of sunshine. Andre Harrison was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Matt Frame and Robert-Jan de Zwart. Artistic decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Guinard - Buch, Van Acker, Marcus - Zant, Vinkestijn-Kohlhuber, Fazekas, Wery, Marras - Marjanen, Kreitmeier.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Zlatan. Lineup: Witman - Pavešić, Kolk, José - Arfè, Orlando, Hispano, Mihai, Ahltorp - Roli, Kuisat.

Zlatan tried to focus their attacks down the middle. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Zlatan, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. J. Zant's technique was perfect on this sunny day and led to some breathtaking tricks that bamboozled the defence. J. Orlando of Zlatan was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Halftime score was 0 - 0. Zlatan had most of the ball, with 51 percent of possession.

Down the middle came P. Pavešić, making a fantastic play that nearly had Zlatan take the lead after 52 minutes, but O. Guinard preserved the tie. Artistic took the lead after 60 minutes as a result of J. Zant's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. N. Kolk received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 82 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. Zlatan were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. Neither team were able to dominate possession this half.

Artistic's best player was R. Fazekas. On the other hand, O. Van Acker's play was disheartening. Most important Zlatan player was E. Hispano. R. Arfè turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 0.