REB 4 - 3 B.Villa (384981984)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 32509 at Dixie Colosseum today. Alexander Singerl was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tayyip Çoban and Gabriel Bach. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for REB. Starters: Pohjankyrö - Kręcisz, Balzaretti, Ravestein, Tereshchatov - Weissberg, Babiarczyk, Ibrahim, Vascolet - Doumas, Boateng.

B.Villa decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Koutník - Schluneker, Kelsterbach, Feinbier - Bauernschmidt, Brandi, Lazarra, Markovski, Drancourt - Wetzel, Hochland.

Some great play up the middle by REB led to a chance for J. Boateng to score after 12 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. The home keeper expected a move to the right, but B. Schluneker surprised him with a free kick aimed the other way 19 minutes into the match. 0 - 1 for B.Villa. REB's A. Weissberg was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 20 minutes. With 24 minutes played, M. Kelsterbach nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. After 27 minutes, REB's T. Vascolet fell awkwardly, but was determined to stay in the match. That's the spirit! 30 minutes into the match, REB's K. Doumas maneuvered his way around the opposition on the left flank, delighting the crowd with his twists and turns. The effort paid off as the ball found the back of the net, evening the score at 1 - 1. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by REB, with 52 percent of the ball.

48 minutes into the match and the home team took a 2 - 1 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for REB was J. Boateng. Perseverence paid off for B.Villa, as their B. Schluneker equalised making it 2 - 2 with a fabulous free kick. M. Ibrahim neatly controlled the ball after a short corner, and knocked it on to K. Babiarczyk who had the whole net open before him, but only managed to hit the post. They were singing the praises of K. Doumas 74 minutes into the match after his speculative chip from the middle of the penalty box found its way over the visitors' keeper to make the score 3 - 2 to REB. J. Boateng should probably have put his team up another goal after 79 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by K. Koutník kept the visitors in the game. K. Doumas's lightning pace was too much for M. Kelsterbach who could only look on as the REB player blasted one home. 4 - 2. At that, K. Doumas was noted down for a hat trick! A well-placed free kick by B.Villa's B. Schluneker reduced the lead to 4 - 3. That made three goals for B. Schluneker and he was marked down for the hat trick. REB claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

The most dominating REB player was without a doubt K. Doumas. However, E. Pohjankyrö made a disastrous appearance. B.Villa's best player was T. Hochland. M. Feinbier on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 3.