BOOKERS 1 - 0 C.1984 (381295128)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 34953 to PROPOTZIDIKO. Nino Ruhlmann was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Georges Declercq and Björn Säfgren. Everyone was excited about the upcoming Makedonia derby and the crowd was divided evenly. BOOKERS had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. Lineup: Tsitouras - Stamatelopoulos, Siomos, Arkoumaneas, Karvelas, Gkekas - Dimokas, Sfaliaridis, Malliopoulos, Zintanopoulos - Doropoulos.

C.1984 started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. They fielded: Puggioli - Dakoutros, Yiannidis, Malamas, Vrachnos, Ladopoulos - Lómstein, Asteras, Malamas - Foraster, Chauvel.

BOOKERS clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. 22 minutes in, C.1984's T. Lómstein received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. A loud groan was heard from the fans of BOOKERS, as M. Gkekas left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. N. Lavas took his place on the field. M. Yiannidis's lack of experience almost gave BOOKERS a goal after 42 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms. BOOKERS took the lead 43 minutes into the match after a magnificent free kick by T. Arkoumaneas that made the score 1 - 0. With 44 minutes played, the visitors could have drawn level after Y. Ladopoulos came through the middle, but his kick went wide. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 0. C.1984 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

The bench was restless, and with 60 minutes passed C.1984's coach gave B. Leuchtenberg the opportunity the player had been hoping for. P. Malamas reluctantly left the field. BOOKERS almost scored after a swift counterattack 64 minutes into the game, but P. Doropoulos put the shot from the left flank just outside the goal. With 70 minutes gone, K. Siomos suddenly found himself completely free on the right wing when a counterattack by BOOKERS caught their opponents by surprise. Only a great save by the opposing keeper prevented him from scoring. The referee showed BOOKERS's K. Karvelas the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. T. Malamas could have made it all square after 73 minutes, if only his free kick had been a few inches to the other side of the post. C.1984 had most of the ball, with 56 percent of possession.

BOOKERS's best player was P. Doropoulos. On the other hand, N. Lavas's play was disheartening. The most dominating C.1984 player was without a doubt E. Puggioli. However, E. Vrachnos made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 0.