Stribar 0 - 1 Forest (384110660)

Dark skies made the crowd of 25443 at The Monkey Cage a little nervous, but the rain held off. Angelo Giorgio Battiato was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Steven Brown and Francis Dubuc. A 5-3-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Stribar. Lineup: Flo - Banegas, Blæsild, Kacíř, Torp, Eikrem - Rødseth, Nyseth, Thorsen - Fjellstad, Stensaas.

Forest tactics involved an interesting 5-4-1 combination. Starters: Hoffmann - Skjølberg, Standal, Luchian, Almbratt, Thorvaldsen - Huttunen, Martin, Olmos, Leivo - Bohus.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Stribar. With 18 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. T. Almbratt put the ball away for 0 - 1. Some things can only be learned through experience, and O. Skjølberg should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting Stribar a goal with 34 minutes of the match played. 0 - 1 was the halftime score. Forest had most of the ball, with 66 percent of possession.

Had it not been for one of the home defenders, D. Bohus would have put Forest up another goal 47 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. A counterattack by Stribar after 50 minutes could have resulted in a goal, but S. Stensaas, coming in on the left, couldn't get the shot off. A foul called during a Stribar counterattack resulted in a great chance to score, but B. Fjellstad's shot rattled off the post. K. Huttunen was, after 83 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 H. Flo made the save. Possession in this half belonged to Forest, who controlled the ball 67 percent of the time.

B. Fjellstad performed admirably for Stribar. However, K. Thorsen made a disastrous appearance. Forest's top performer was clearly D. Bohus. S. Thorvaldsen was a disappointment, however. The match ends 0 - 1.