Dresden 2 - 1 Paderborn (384282665)

Dark skies made the crowd of 48437 at Dynamo Stadion a little nervous, but the rain held off. Huibert Jennen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Reymond Merwart and Claudio Bastarrica. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Dresden. Lineup: Balkheimer - Ang, Fröber, Gatzemeyer - Beurskens, Gutenberg, Küsterholz, Drăguloiu, Braun - Alagöz, Müffling.

Paderborn had chosen a strategic 4-3-3 formation. They fielded: Covaci - Horster, Mellinghoff, Kopsche, Queiss - De Natale, Margaritidis, Dirlmeier - Soenen, Haapaniemi, Coutinho.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Paderborn. With 2 minutes played C. Müffling almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. Dresden's C. Müffling refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 17 minutes. Some great play up the middle by Dresden led to a chance for D. Drăguloiu to score after 25 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. Paderborn's defence sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counterattack with 26 minutes gone, but T. Haapaniemi's finish was met by the reaching hands of the keeper. Many thought E. Alagöz ought to have been awarded a penalty 31 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around V. Covaci after a determined run through the middle. Halftime score was 0 - 0. Dresden enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 68 percent of possession.

Making his way up the middle 50 minutes into the match, T. Ang almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert V. Covaci blocked it to keep the score level. S. von Guttenberg was called on to replace Dresden's T. Ang after 52 minutes following a nasty collision. C. Müffling caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 63 minutes. This gave Dresden the 1 - 0 lead. After 64 minutes, F. Coutinho sent the corner kick right to T. Soenen who headed it sharply past the keeper. 1 - 1! 68 minutes in, Dresden's H. Fröber received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. A loud groan was heard from the fans of Paderborn, as T. Margaritidis left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. F. Tinhof took his place on the field. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, F. Tinhof took over the role of being the Paderborn captain. After a fine move down the middle E. Alagöz nearly gave the home side a goal after 75 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. Paderborn's J. Horster got himself booked for a foul. They were singing the praises of A. Küsterholz 82 minutes into the match after his speculative chip from the middle of the penalty box found its way over the visitors' keeper to make the score 2 - 1 to Dresden. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Dresden, with 67 percent of the ball.

Most important Dresden player was E. Alagöz. However, S. von Guttenberg made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Paderborn player was without a doubt T. Soenen. J. Horster on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 1.