Cartagena 3 - 6 Happerschoss (378894305)

Clear skies welcomed the 683 spectators who had made their way to Coliseum Cartagenero. Valentin Cucu was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Aris Doe and Jérôme Louette. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Cartagena. The following players had been chosen: Martínez - Medina, Gonzalo Matas, Gómez de la Blanca - Pedrós, Rutland, Franganillo, Pérez Marín - Vilaspasa, Santacruz, Irureta.

Happerschoss tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Brinker - Gavinha, Oliveira, Raabe - Eiger, Kazainis, Hackett, Steinhauser, Geltow - Gotlib, Ove.

Some good play on the left wing created an opportunity for the visitors 15 minutes into the match, and M. Steinhauser wasn't about to let it go by. He got past the defenders and fired a shot that the keeper just missed. 0 - 1 for the visitors. With 23 minutes having been played, Cartagena scored to make it 1 - 1. A dribble down the left wing, followed by a shot which took a wicked bounce off a defender resulted in the keeper having no chance. Everyone thought it'd been an own goal, but V. Medina was marked down as the scorer. The referee showed Cartagena's N. Pérez Marín the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. 29 minutes were showing on the scoreboard when Cartagena's N. Pérez Marín received his second yellow card and was sent off. The guests took the lead 30 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in J. Gavinha scoring to make it 1 - 2. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, E. Kazainis got himself booked. The manager of Happerschoss was not happy. Cartagena's S. Rutland put his head to a high ball coming in from the right after 34 minutes, but the ball went wide. Happerschoss's H. Brinker had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 35 minutes having been played. D. Bouville was the replacement. E. Franganillo hit the corner kick straight to the keeper, but it was mishandled, giving Cartagena's S. Rutland an easy chance to knock it in for 2 - 2. Happerschoss's G. Ove gave the visitors a 2 - 3 lead after 37 minutes with a superb strike from the right. After a fatal mistake from the away team's right side defence 38 minutes into the match, an alert S. Rutland bagged the ball for Cartagena, levelling the score to 3 - 3. 3 - 3 was the halftime score. Happerschoss enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 53 percent of possession.

Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 47 minutes into the match left Happerschoss's J. Oliveira completely free to score. 3 - 4 for the visitors. Having been awarded a free kick in an awkward position after 52 minutes, Happerschoss did not go for a shot but instead fired the ball hard into the 6 yard box. After a brief tussle with his marker, E. Kazainis was able to power the ball past the keeper to make the score 3 - 5. Confident in their lead, Happerschoss's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Some fine movement on the left led to a Happerschoss goal after 55 minutes, making it 3 - 6. M. Steinhauser was noted down as the scorer. S. Vilaspasa messed up a penalty shot after 61 minutes, the ball going miles wide. Cartagena claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

S. Vilaspasa performed admirably for Cartagena. However, A. Martínez made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Happerschoss player was without a doubt J. Gavinha. G. Hackett on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 6.