Gunners 0 - 2 Ostrava (381385060)

It had rained all day, but 29158 hardy fans still made it out to Highbury. Tommy Stølen was the appointed referee. All of Moravskoslezský kraj was shut down for the day, as fans of both clubs came to the derby. Gunners had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Cardaveras - Jakabík, Sahuc, Echandía, Damaschin - Eymery, Bramanti, Reinbek, Bariev, Étheve - Hoogervorst.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Ostrava. They fielded: Maggiore - Spanò, Martinez, Antolini - Nekrylov, Bozóky, Arnbergsson, Di Pietro, Satoniitty - Diodato, Huijsmans.

The wings were the focus of most of Gunners's attacks today. Ostrava decided to play creatively. Gunners's B. Hoogervorst was shown a yellow card after 4 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Unfortunately for Ostrava, U. Antolini was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. A. Cacciamani replaced him. After 7 minutes N. Nekrylov made a speedy advance and dropped the ball to W. Huijsmans who shuffled it past the keeper. The score was now 0 - 1. The muddy pitch made the game a gritty affair, which seemed to suit M. Damaschin just fine. U. Spanò slipped and slithered in the wet grass. His usual rapid runs were nowhere to be seen today. The visitors' B. Bozóky took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 29 minutes into the match. 0 - 2 for Ostrava. Gunners's C. Étheve refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 31 minutes. Gunners had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. It was 0 - 2 at the break. Ostrava claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

The crowd groaned when B. Hoogervorst, having maneuvered his way down the right, fired the ball just wide and missed a great opportunity to reduce the deficit for Gunners. With the scoreboard showing that 68 minutes had been played, Ostrava nearly put themselves up another goal after P. Diodato came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Ostrava, with 52 percent of the ball.

Gunners's top performer was clearly G. Bramanti. V. Jakabík turned in a dismal performance, however. B. Bozóky performed admirably for Ostrava. N. Nekrylov was a disappointment, however. The match ends 0 - 2.