štepanc 3 - 5 Sosed (382733337)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 63584 at Boris Arena today. Zenonas Pormalis was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jonathan Cheyne and Anatole De Graaf. Everyone was excited about the upcoming Ljubljana derby and the crowd was divided evenly. štepanc decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. Starters: Landsten - Viler, Rivale - Strijbos, Omotoyossi, Fornels, Bouquet, Inglin - Antohi, Totori, Taylor.

Sosed tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: Kintzelé - Pugelj, Dernovšek, Lovka, Šupuk - Wiesinger, Kastrin, Kozlina, Vrhovski - Wild, Sapunarov.

Sosed clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 15 minutes into the match left Sosed's G. Kozlina completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. With a shot curled in from just outside the middle of the penalty area after 32 minutes played, P. Inglin of štepanc made the score 1 - 1. With 40 minutes played A. Taylor almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. Sosed earned themselves a free kick after a counterattack wasn't dealt with adequately by their opponents. J. Wild powered the shot in for 1 - 2. With 43 minutes played, after a good run down the left, G. Bouquet went down looking for a penalty after a challenge from the visitors' right fullback, but the referee waved play on, and later warned him for diving. V. Sapunarov was the first to reach the corner kick, but his header was blocked by the keeper. However, Sosed's E. Dernovšek managed to get hold of the rebound and tucked the ball into the empty net. 1 - 3 J. Wild wanted to play on, but the Sosed coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 43 minutes into the game by B. Aliyev. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Sosed lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. 44 minutes into the game štepanc broke through on the left wing and J. Fornels managed to reduce the lead to 2 - 3. 2 - 3 was the score after the first half. štepanc claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 63 percent.

E. Wiesinger of Sosed took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 51 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 2 - 4. štepanc's P. Inglin was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - N. Antohi managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 3 - 4 after 52 minutes. In an effort to secure the lead, Sosed changed their tactic after 75 minutes. The Sosed players could smell victory in the air. E. Wiesinger wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for R. Kočevar after 75 minutes. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Sosed coach let S. van den Bergh replace L. Vrhovski after 75 minutes. štepanc's F. Strijbos had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 75 minutes having been played. V. Gams was the replacement. Good work by the Sosed defensive line after 82 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found B. Aliyev alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. 86 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 3 - 5 as E. Dernovšek finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. štepanc enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

štepanc's top performer was clearly A. Taylor. V. Gams turned in a dismal performance, however. The most dominating Sosed player was without a doubt P. Šupuk. However, B. Aliyev made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 5.