Exipnos 2 - 1 Salaminas (381302880)

It had rained all day, but 20750 hardy fans still made it out to Ela na se "Baklavaso"!!!. Alexander Tutaev was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Waldemar Baldas and Davy Fleureau. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Exipnos. They fielded: Planchon - Cretu, Brinkhorst, Angel - Chrisanthopoulos, Giménez Arnau, Fröschl, Massaro, Tsiampas - Mandl, Kievit.

Salaminas had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. Starters: Van Praet - Queneville, Štrajt, Conlledo, Cieniewicz - Overste, Rombach, Palaskas, Dueñas, Kakomiroglou - Levitsianos.

Today, Exipnos's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Salaminas clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Making his way up the middle 17 minutes into the match, J. Mandl almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert P. Van Praet blocked it to keep the score level. Good work by the Salaminas defensive line after 18 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found E. Levitsianos alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. The rain made it hard for players like A. Conlledo to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. Slack defending gave Exipnos a chance to take the lead with 38 minutes played, but R. Massaro's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. 41 minutes into the match and the home team took a 1 - 0 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Exipnos was J. Mandl. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Exipnos enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 55 percent of possession.

Exipnos solidified their lead at the 71 minute mark, as R. Giménez Arnau dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0. Players in Exipnos heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. R. Giménez Arnau could have put Exipnos up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 76 minutes. A. Fröschl unleashed a swerving effort from the right that the visitors' keeper did well to tip wide. After 84 minutes, Salaminas 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 M. Dueñas, who had plenty of space to place a well aimed shot - 2 - 1. Exipnos claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 59 percent.

Exipnos's best player was R. Massaro. A. Chrisanthopoulos was a disappointment, however. Most important Salaminas player was W. Rombach. W. Cieniewicz on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 1.