Socke 2 - 4 Ostbahn (384483539)

15800 spectators had found their way to Arena der Strümpfe, despite the heavy rain. František Molnár was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Eevert Näsäkkälä and Peter Rogersson. Socke had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. They fielded: Köstli - Altermatt, Freyung, Garoldi - Mölderkivi, Intorf, Rahman, Matsson - Ilias, Epprecht, Oriol Durán.

Ostbahn started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Al-Otaiba - Fehrenbacher, Tibus, Kuznetsov - Jurriaanse, Kremser, Furiani, Hardenberg, Jacquard - Radetz, Succi.

Socke tried to focus their attacks down the middle. Ostbahn seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Ostbahn, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. After 10 minutes, Ostbahn's F. Hardenberg made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. J. Oriol Durán showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 30 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. Ostbahn had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 32 minutes in when M. Succi came up alone against E. Köstli who managed a block. A. Jurriaanse did not have a good day today, often losing his footing on the muddy pitch. The guests took the lead 35 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in D. Furiani scoring to make it 1 - 2. Ostbahn had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. After 36 minutes, Ostbahn's M. Succi burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 3. 1 - 3 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to Ostbahn, who controlled the ball 63 percent of the time.

D. Furiani came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over E. Köstli but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. Y. Jacquard was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. With 63 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed D. Furiani of Ostbahn to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 1 - 4. Confident in their lead, Ostbahn's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. 70 minutes into the game, Ostbahn worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. N. Sailschipp was called on to replace Ostbahn's E. Radetz after 71 minutes following a nasty collision. Socke were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. Socke's S. Matsson cut towards the middle after 72 minutes, receiving a brilliant pass and slicing through the visiting team's central defence, reducing the lead to 2 - 4. After 76 minutes of game time, N. Sailschipp had an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors' lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but E. Köstli was in the right place and tipped the ball over for a corner. Ostbahn enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 64 percent of possession.

Socke's top performer was clearly J. Oriol Durán. R. Rahman turned in a dismal performance, however. The most dominating Ostbahn player was without a doubt D. Furiani. I. Al-Otaiba was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 4.