Eintracht 2 - 3 Shinu (384365152)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Eintracht Arena saw a crowd turnout of 26692. Gustav Öhgren was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Iiro Krabbe and Xavier Giménez. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Eintracht. The following players took the field: Flanke - Demirkapı, Foppen, Gick - Pešina, Vukosavljević, Irueta, Rieper, Gabrielli - Nurmela, Fußnegger.

Shinu started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Grohmann - Ahren, Eschacker, Zippel - Kelling, Scholzen, Lauffs, Schweinitz, Kniehase - Prosel, Nesvadba.

Today, Shinu's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, W. Scholzen got himself booked. The manager of Shinu was not happy. With 23 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. S. Kelling put the ball away for 0 - 1. After 31 minutes, Shinu sent a free kick in high over the penalty box. In what looked like a well-rehearsed move, the ball was headed backwards and reached L. Prosel, who had plenty of space to place a well aimed shot - 0 - 2. The players of Shinu now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. What ever got into W. Scholzen, the crowd mumbled, as he suddenly struck a cross pass through his own defence - ending up right in front of Eintracht's R. Nurmela, who easily put the ball away for 1 - 2 after 35 minutes. Eintracht's A. Vukosavljević was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 38 minutes. 40 minutes into the game, M. Lauffs had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came T. Hepp. Halftime score was 1 - 2. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Shinu, with 57 percent of the ball.

Content with how the game was proceeding, the Shinu coach let D. Hintze-Mango replace B. Nesvadba after 46 minutes. It was obvious that Shinu had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. With 70 minutes played, the Eintracht coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. G. Birschl came on, R. Nurmela had to leave the fray. The bench was restless, and with 75 minutes passed Eintracht's coach gave A. Samuel the opportunity the player had been hoping for. S. Foppen reluctantly left the field. 80 minutes in, Shinu's R. Schweinitz received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The crowd chanted their encouragement as Eintracht's D. Fußnegger came in from the right after 83 minutes and put the ball in the net to level the score at 2 - 2. There was concern in the stands when, at the 84 minute mark, Eintracht's G. Gick hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. An opportunity to take the lead after 87 minutes was wasted as Shinu's S. Kelling missed a penalty, firing wide of the mark. 87 minutes into the match, Shinu nearly took the lead, as R. Schweinitz broke through on the right. P. Flanke made the save, however. That Shinu's D. Hintze-Mango has the ability of doing what no one expects him to do was shown as he ran over an opposing defender, snatched the ball and passed to S. Kelling who hit it hard into the wide open goal after 88 minutes: 2 - 3! Shinu had most of the ball, with 60 percent of possession.

Eintracht's best player was D. Fußnegger. A. Samuel turned in a dismal performance, however. L. Prosel performed admirably for Shinu. On the other hand, K. Kniehase's play was disheartening. The match ends 2 - 3.