Stars 1 - 2 Košice (383785062)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 61368 to M.S. Stars Arena. Mikko Pönkänen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Joel Hultén and Kurt Hildebrandt. Stars decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Cipri - Benetti, Sejersen, Kryvelis - Ragnarsson, Kerschbaum, Modranský, Weseloh, Simonetti - Di Nardo, Egri.

Košice tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Zuricaray - Eiss, Pellisé, Heijs - Nemec, Pomes, Rector, Tamagnone, Spensieri - Kriss, Mesmer.

Stars were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. G. Tamagnone got left behind when Stars's R. Di Nardo made a sudden run forward after 11 minutes, finishing off with a neat strike. 1 - 0! The visitors refused to give in and, after 16 minutes, C. Mesmer evened things up as he finished off a perfect pass from the right. 1 - 1 After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, L. Rector got himself booked. The manager of Košice was not happy. With 26 minutes played C. Ragnarsson almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Košice claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

The corner kick from C. Mesmer was powerfully met by the head of E. Spensieri to make the score 1 - 2. L. Rector knew he was in trouble after hacking down an opponent. Despite his pleading with the referee, the Košice player was shown a second yellow card and dismissed from the game. Košice enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

Stars's top performer was clearly E. Egri. However, L. Benetti made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Košice player was without a doubt G. Pomes. On the other hand, E. Spensieri's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 2.