Gennaro 0 - 2 Špartanci (377914260)

53600 punters turned up at FC Gennaro Gattuso Arena, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Stefan Hammarmo was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Serban Dumitru and René Solana. Gennaro tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Espasens - Issa, Schaafsma, Heespen - Degenaars, De Greyt, Elstrøm, Markwardt, Pisarczyk - Descheiver, van Heeze.

Špartanci had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. They fielded: Kusyn - Lahajnar, Resendes, Čulič, Robnik - Malpica Campos, Gandola, Vukojan, Dahliensteg - Galego, Gjelsvik.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Špartanci. After a fine move down the middle A. Degenaars nearly gave the home side a goal after 4 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. S. Gandola knocked one home from a counterattack down the right wing, making the score 0 - 1 after 5 minutes. 35 minutes into the game, A. Degenaars came close to levelling the score with a dangerous shot from the centre of the area that went just over the bar. Špartanci's M. Dahliensteg was shown a yellow card after 36 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Some fine passing in the middle of the pitch, carving open the away defence, should have led to a goal for Gennaro, but A. Markwardt's shot went over the bar. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Gennaro enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 62 percent of possession.

Gennaro tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. The visitors almost increased their lead after 84 minutes when a sweetly hit free kick looked like it was heading for the top corner. However the keeper managed to get a fingertip to it, sending it over the bar. A corner kick created great disorder in the penalty area with a goal nearly scored by L. Gjelsvik. At last, Špartanci's A. Robnik was able to backheel the ball in. 0 - 2. Confident in their lead, Špartanci's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Having turned the direction of play quickly, the Špartanci counter attack ended as the ball carrier was brought down violently by a defender after 88 minutes. The resulting free kick was a flat shot into the area just in front of the keeper. However, the defence were on their toes and did not allow the opponents to reach the ball. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, S. Gandola got himself booked. The manager of Špartanci was not happy. After 89 minutes B. Descheiver could have reduced the lead with a blistering strike from the left wing, had it not been for an excellent block by the visitors' keeper. Gennaro claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 61 percent.

The most dominating Gennaro player was without a doubt A. Markwardt. On the other hand, M. Issa's play was disheartening. Špartanci's top performer was clearly L. Gjelsvik. S. Gandola was a disappointment, however. The match ends 0 - 2.