Höngger 2 - 1 Yanico (385002914)

Dark skies made the crowd of 14293 at Festung Hönggerberg a little nervous, but the rain held off. Sven-Göran Lundhby was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Timothy Handy and Rune Stentoft. Höngger decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Heitmann - Dahllund, Cumming, El-Sa'eed - Geßele, Combs, Moise, Şaşmaz, Łusiewicz - Spottag, Mathiesen.

Yanico started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Holderbaum - Choquart, Di Pietrantonio, Paquet - Voss, Levine, Ambauen, Kefalas, Chanal - Kouki, Vignola.

The wings were the focus of most of Yanico's attacks today. Höngger's M. Heitmann left the field after 7 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was D. Parry. Yanico had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 26 minutes in when V. Paquet came up alone against D. Parry who managed a block. Höngger's M. Spottag has the wonderful ability to create chances out of thin air. 38 minutes into the match he bamboozled a couple of opposition defenders before sending the keeper the wrong way and sidefooting the ball home into an empty net. That totally unexpected burst of flair made it 1 - 0. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Yanico, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. Yanico were close to putting the equaliser away after 43 minutes as the opposing defence lost control of the ball to O. Kouki in a scuffle towards the left of the goal, but in the end the ball was cleared over the dead ball line. After 44 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by T. Łusiewicz might have resulted in another goal for Höngger. However, L. Holderbaum made a spectacular save. Yanico's V. Paquet was shown a yellow card after 44 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Höngger had most of the ball, with 51 percent of possession.

Höngger increased the lead as A. Şaşmaz struck to make the score 2 - 0 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. C. Moise could have increased the lead after 69 minutes, but his shot hit the post after a nice combination in the middle of the park. Yanico's K. Voss was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - O. Kouki managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 2 - 1 after 80 minutes. Yanico's A. Choquart got himself booked for a foul. T. Łusiewicz was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Höngger's C. Rivaud had to come off the bench. A great save by keeper L. Holderbaum after 87 minutes kept the visitors in the game after A. Şaşmaz struck from the left with a real cannonball. Coming from the right, M. Geßele almost managed to score another goal for Höngger, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. Possession in this half belonged to Yanico, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Höngger's top performer was clearly E. Mathiesen. C. Rivaud turned in a dismal performance, however. V. Ambauen performed admirably for Yanico. A. Choquart was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 1.