Maltesers 3 - 0 Gunners (384884235)

38819 spectators arrived at Dynamo White Maltese Arena, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Korneliusz Szydłowski was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Nélson Freitas and Antonio Valverde. Maltesers had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Shevlyakov - Grießl, Lebarten, Vişan, Favre, Garan - Radu, Panzenböck, Fajardo, Bordron - Leisibach.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Gunners. They fielded: Roland - Häggbom, Pettersson, Bargo, Grassmann - Farner, Blocker, Havia, Le Bozec - Casanova, Polini.

Maltesers were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Gunners. After 17 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. F. Bordron easily put the ball away to give the lead to Maltesers. 1 - 0 Cheers filled the stadium as F. Bordron broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to Maltesers. With 39 minutes gone, a long pass from the defence of Gunners resulted in a counterattack that set L. Casanova free through the middle, but the keeper made a spectacular diving save. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave C. Vişan from Maltesers a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 40 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Maltesers's F. Bordron had an excellent opportunity after 41 minutes, shooting after receiving a pass from the right hand side, but he missed the goal by miles! Halftime score was 2 - 0. Maltesers claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 65 percent.

54 minutes in, G. Polini made an incredible run up the middle and nearly reduced the home side's lead, but N. Shevlyakov refused to let the ball slip by him. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the Gunners manager used a brief break in play after 70 minutes to give the players new directives. F. Bordron wanted to play on, but the Maltesers coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 75 minutes into the game by D. Santa María. I. Radu was handed the Maltesers captain's armband. Maltesers's D. Panzenböck left the field after 79 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was K. Eilands. The coach of Maltesers was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 80 minutes, G. Soffritti came on for R. Leisibach. 80 minutes into the match Maltesers's W. Grießl head butted an opponent nastily, and so the referee sent him off immediately. After 84 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and G. Soffritti gave the Maltesers supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 3 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Maltesers, with 62 percent of the ball.

Maltesers's top performer was clearly G. Soffritti. K. Eilands turned in a dismal performance, however. Gunners's best player was R. Bargo. On the other hand, J. Havia's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.