Genialos 0 - 1 FCCF (382737319)

Dark skies made the crowd of 27883 at NK Genialos Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Ledo Lousada was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Aldopaolo Di Biase and Francisco Vázquez. Genialos tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. The following players took the field: Beckers - Thorpe, Mikloška, Passarotto, Mandelc - Bernat, Cigale, Toftlund, Gašpar, Tadmor - Comito.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for FCCF. They fielded: Mutlu - Longoria, Kristiansen, Medina - Al Moayyed, Buch Petersen, Lorbek, González, Horvatiček - Strpić, Caironi.

Genialos seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. FCCF clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. FCCF had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 14 minutes in when T. Caironi came up alone against E. Beckers who managed a block. Genialos players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. It was obvious that team FCCF had instructions to attack in the middle instead of on the wings. After 38 minutes, FCCF's T. Caironi made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. Genialos's V. Mandelc made an attempt at equalising 40 minutes into the match, coming in from the right, but the ball hit the post and the defence easily cleared the rebound. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for FCCF, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. L. Buch Petersen was, after 42 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors' lead with a well placed diving header after the ball had looped into the centre, but the home side's keeper E. Beckers made the save. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave D. Horvatiček from FCCF a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 43 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! J. Cigale charged down the left and had a wonderful opportunity to score the equaliser for Genialos, but the shot went well wide of the goal. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Genialos had most of the ball, with 54 percent of possession.

Genialos's A. Tadmor put his head to a high ball coming in from the right after 47 minutes, but the ball went wide. With 77 minutes played, after a good run down the left, L. Gašpar 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. With 79 minutes played, P. Medina nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. Genialos's A. Tadmor made a successful breakthrough on the left after 81 minutes and should have levelled the score, but instead he clipped it over the bar. Possession in this half belonged to Genialos, who controlled the ball 54 percent of the time.

Genialos's top performer was clearly L. Gašpar. E. Beckers was a disappointment, however. The most dominating FCCF player was without a doubt L. Buch Petersen. However, J. Strpić made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 1.