Schlumpfi 2 - 1 Nord-Ost (384883637)

It was an exceptionally sunny day for the crowd of 41217 that came out to Schlumpfi Arena. Henri Fontaine was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Boris Matthies and Tom Hammarsten. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Schlumpfi. The following players had been chosen: Járfás - Merenda, Sponseiler, Zarp - Delaunay, Dayan, Loos, Ionescu, Koster - Waeffler, Grimmelshausen.

Nord-Ost had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players took the field: Ménard - Lardi, Böhi, Can - Klingbacher, Marquard, Soreau, Ghezzi, Kanavopoulos - Niedziela, Meredith.

The sun seemed to put K. Niedziela in a great mood, and he showed off his technical skills all match long. Slack defending gave Schlumpfi a chance to take the lead with 8 minutes played, but M. Delaunay's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. After 14 minutes, A. Böhi sent the corner kick right to R. Can who headed it sharply past the keeper. 0 - 1! Schlumpfi tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. After the ball was lifted in from the left, K. Niedziela was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 31 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. 35 minutes into the game, Z. Járfás had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came F. Schmidbauer. F. Schmidbauer got a fingertip on N. Meredith's shot from the left 36 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. It was 0 - 1 at the break. Schlumpfi enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

With 54 minutes played, A. Dayan of Schlumpfi fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. After 55 minutes, S. Loos got through on the right and was very close to equalising for the home side, but didn't get the shot away. After 61 minutes, Schlumpfi used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. F. Schmidbauer kept the home side in the game with a magnificent save when A. Böhi delivered an almost perfect free kick to the far post. With 81 minutes played, the Schlumpfi coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. D. Mitterhuber came on, A. Dayan had to leave the fray. The Schlumpfi players listened closely to their manager, as he gave new tactical instructions for the team. After 84 minutes, Schlumpfi switched J. Merenda with V. Bolin, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. After 86 minutes of play, M. Delaunay evened things up for Schlumpfi with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 1 - 1. 87 minutes into the game, R. Klingbacher almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Schlumpfi fans held their breath as P. Waeffler scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 2 - 1! Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Schlumpfi, with 53 percent of the ball.

Schlumpfi's best player was W. Grimmelshausen. F. Schmidbauer on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Nord-Ost player was K. Niedziela. However, C. Lardi made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 1.