Valiants 3 - 0 Spori (382809633)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 67847 to Jousting Arena. Pedro Garcia was the appointed referee. Valiants started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Bugs - Leal, Belgibaev, Casaluci - Castureddu, Papišta, Rodríguez, Mizó, Monforte - Stipčević, Löwik.

A 5-4-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Spori. Lineup: Locqueneux - Rusu, Schuetze, Boc, Honkonen, Oviedo - Janić, Lovričević, Soljačić, 发兴 (Faxing) - Müller-Stahl.

Spori were relying on their ability to counter-attack. B. Papišta gave Valiants the lead as he successfully challenged the guests' central defenders, then slotted the ball into the bottom corner, giving the keeper no chance. 1 - 0 With 18 minutes played, N. Casaluci could have brought this one home for Valiants as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. With 19 minutes gone, S. Lovričević suddenly found himself completely free on the right wing when a counterattack by Spori caught their opponents by surprise. Only a great save by the opposing keeper prevented him from scoring. With 36 minutes played, Valiants put themselves up 2 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to C. Löwik, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. The Spori coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. After 36 minutes, Spori used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. L. Stipčević wanted to play on, but the Valiants coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 36 minutes into the game by P. Suikka. After a short break after 36 minutes, Valiants seemed to change their tactical approach a bit. After 36 minutes, the Valiants players received new instructions from their manager on how to keep in control of the game. After this, you could see that the players of Valiants were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. After 39 minutes, the defensive line of Spori created a counterattack through the middle that gave R. Müller-Stahl a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Valiants claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 66 percent.

E. Monforte should probably have put his team up another goal after 57 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by J. Locqueneux kept the visitors in the game. Y. Castureddu wasn't much help defensively. His energy-consuming forward runs proved quite costly in the oppressive heat. 78 minutes into the game Spori managed a counterattack, but 林. 发兴 (Faxing) took a soft shot from the left flank that was easy prey for the alert keeper. With 79 minutes played, the Spori coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. A. Díaz came on, B. Schuetze had to leave the fray. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, S. Lovričević took over the role of being the Spori captain. After 83 minutes, M. Belgibaev sent the corner kick right to C. Leal who headed it sharply past the keeper. 3 - 0! P. Suikka could have put Valiants up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 86 minutes. Spori had a great opportunity to score following a counterattack after 87 minutes, but 林. 发兴 (Faxing)'s shot from the left sailed high over the bar. Spori breathed new life into the game with an opportunity to reduce the score after 87 minutes, but the home side's defenders cleared the ball on the line, after a long shot coming in from the left rebounded off the crossbar. Valiants enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 67 percent of possession.

Valiants's best player was C. Löwik. B. Bugs was a disappointment, however. The most dominating Spori player was without a doubt R. Müller-Stahl. A. Díaz turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 0.