milano 1 - 1 Mezzago (381757707)

20572 punters turned up at Arena di milano, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Luca Altieri was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Francesco Magistris and Henri Åkerfelt. Everyone was excited about the upcoming Lombardia derby and the crowd was divided evenly. milano had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Kondratiev - Johnston, Yoshikawa, Chamot - Oprinca, Priolo, Žeravica, van Altena, Markfort - Mallia, Holitzer.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Mezzago. The following players had been chosen: Malavé - Tourneur, Fransen, Syty - Canfora, Lyn, Rondelli, Maffei, Lekanov - Doroftei, Ruhnau.

Mezzago's A. Doroftei could have put the guests one up after 5 minutes after chasing a through ball from the right, but Y. Kondratiev was as fast as a snake, grabbing the ball from under his nose. Mezzago had to make a substitution after 6 minutes. A. Doroftei limped off the field and was replaced by P. Valenti. K. Ruhnau was the new captain of Mezzago - handed the armband by the departing player. Making his way up the middle 8 minutes into the match, D. Žeravica almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert B. Malavé blocked it to keep the score level. P. Valenti had a good try after 16 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide. 0 - 0 was the score after the first half. Mezzago claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Mezzago's M. Lyn after 55 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. With the scoreboard showing that 67 minutes had been played, Mezzago nearly put themselves up another goal after K. Ruhnau came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. 72 minutes into the match, M. Lyn came through the middle and almost added to his team's lead, but the shot went wide. milano's D. Žeravica made a successful breakthrough on the left after 73 minutes and should have levelled the score, but instead he clipped it over the bar. 77 minutes in, Mezzago's H. Tourneur received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. V. Mallia showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 83 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Mezzago, with 53 percent of the ball.

The most dominating milano player was without a doubt M. Holitzer. L. Chamot on the other hand, had a terrible day. Mezzago's best player was K. Ruhnau. However, P. Valenti made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 1.