Kurtaran 3 - 1 Gladenbach (384291484)

Dark skies made the crowd of 33108 at FC Kurtaran Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Pavlo Nepiypyvo was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Wouter-Jan Beringer and Szymon Myszewski. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Kurtaran. The following players took the field: Archundia - Cavoni, Kmetty, Orfei, Mari - Płachciński, Luxburg, Eckstein, Paulsen, Kallitsis - Ivančević.

Gladenbach had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. Starters: Kurtcebe - Barulho, McGuinness, Polk, Bielicz - Burgk, Lafargue, Johannisthaler, Girafa, Debacker - Ingemarsson.

Kurtaran immediately set off using their skill at pressing their opponents. Gladenbach used their ability to concentrate their attacks in the middle of the pitch, rather than on the wings. With 18 minutes gone, Gladenbach had a free kick in a decent position. Despite this being a great chance for a shot, they tried a cheeky move intended to bypass the defence. However, B. Ingemarsson did not manage to connect with it cleanly and the ball went out. With 21 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. L. Debacker put the ball away for 0 - 1. With the crowd on their feet chanting wildly, some great moves down the right hand side after 22 minutes gave Kurtaran a wonderful opportunity to level the score, and R. Ivančević stepped up to the challenge. 1 - 1 The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave L. Płachciński from Kurtaran a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 23 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! A loud groan was heard from the fans of Gladenbach, as V. Polk left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. V. Klieba took his place on the field. 1 - 1 was the halftime score. Kurtaran claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

Gladenbach had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. 66 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a Kurtaran substitution. J. Friedrichshall came on for R. Ivančević. 66 minutes in, the unpredictable P. Kallitsis of Kurtaran turned and curled the ball towards goal, but it flew inches wide of the post, almost taking out a member of the crowd! After 68 minutes of play, P. Kallitsis gave the home team a 2 - 1 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the Gladenbach manager used a brief break in play after 69 minutes to give the players new directives. Cheers filled the stadium as L. Płachciński broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 1 to Kurtaran. Gladenbach's L. Debacker had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 78 minutes having been played. P. Bentkowski was the replacement. Gladenbach certainly deserved a goal after some stunning play down the left, but S. Bielicz just wasn't able to finish. Possession in this half belonged to Kurtaran, who controlled the ball 54 percent of the time.

The most dominating Kurtaran player was without a doubt J. Friedrichshall. M. Orfei was a disappointment, however. Most important Gladenbach player was B. Ingemarsson. K. Kurtcebe on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 1.