niknie 4 - 1 doblen (381517689)

Dark skies made the crowd of 40288 at ežu midzenis Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. 李 (Li) 航任 (Hangren) was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tor Martinussen and Bülent Sağlık. niknie had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players took the field: Gudaitis - Furrer, Elferink, Motiekaitis, Panigo - Karampatsos, Dziļums, Szendrei, Dellitsch - Tibilov, Moltedo.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for doblen. They fielded: Adomssent - Zīgerts, Yaltır, Kristsons - Ballevanger, Rodríguez, Novaković, Doin, Marecki - Lövbom, Charykau.

niknie clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. doblen were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for niknie, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Many thought A. Panigo ought to have been awarded a penalty 9 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around V. Adomssent after a determined run through the middle. niknie broke through on the left 15 minutes into the game, with D. Tibilov firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. 19 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as M. Motiekaitis broke through, making the score 2 - 0 for niknie. At this point, it was obvious that the players of niknie lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. J. Doin was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by B. Kristsons, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. Cheers filled the stadium as R. Elferink broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to niknie. It was obvious that team niknie had instructions to attack in the middle instead of on the wings. 3 - 0 was the score after the first half. niknie had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

niknie put in a good effort on the right, but D. Moltedo saw his volley fly wide of the mark 52 minutes into the game. With 55 minutes played, niknie's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to G. Furrer he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 4 - 0. The visitors' right side was dangerous today; Ź. Charykau made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily reduced the lead to make it 4 - 1 58 minutes into the match. niknie players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. doblen made sure of not letting D. Moltedo succeed with his speed. When an opportunity appeared for him, as it did 78 minutes into the game, speedy H. Yaltır came to the rescue and stopped the attack. niknie had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. After 84 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by F. Dellitsch might have resulted in another goal for niknie. However, V. Adomssent made a spectacular save. F. Dellitsch almost put niknie ahead another goal when he curled a free kick over the defensive wall and almost into the net, but the visitors' keeper got there just in time to knock it wide. niknie claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

niknie's best player was G. Szendrei. On the other hand, A. Panigo's play was disheartening. The most dominating doblen player was without a doubt H. Yaltır. V. Adomssent was a disappointment, however. The match ends 4 - 1.