Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 70000 at
d on huono t Arena today.
Adesvara Sadagopan was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Iacob Lupea and
Terry Izzo.
huono tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination.
They fielded: Marmolejo - Duvinage, Ahlner, Halmes, Apostolov - Henneuse, Papilaya, Ragg, Smirnov, Saskavets - Sobrinha.
pallottomatko started off with a 3-5-2 lineup.
Starters: Sánchez-Pertejo - Vuorisalmi, Rummakko, Predieri - Turevičius, Ekenberg, Roslund, Heinola, Nedelchev - Mihaljević, Treu.
It was an obvious ambition of huono to use their ability at attacking on the flanks.
Today, pallottomatko's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks.
huono took the lead after 7 minutes as a result of
B. Henneuse's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0.
pallottomatko had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead.
19 minutes into the match the visitors levelled the score at 1 - 1 as
J. Rummakko struck home from a rebound off the crossbar, following a shot from the right.
huono broke through on the left 27 minutes into the game, with
B. Henneuse firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 2 - 1 lead.
Đ. Mihaljević of pallottomatko received a yellow card after 35 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
As
A. Smirnov had, completely unprovoked, swept the legs out from under an opponent in front of a linesman, the referee gave the huono player a red card without batting an eyelid.
A great save by keeper
M. Sánchez-Pertejo after 36 minutes kept the visitors in the game after
A. Papilaya struck from the left with a real cannonball.
There was concern in the stands when, at the 38 minute mark, pallottomatko's
J. Rummakko hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch.
The home side's
V. Apostolov came close to extending the lead 39 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but
M. Sánchez-Pertejo managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop.
Players in huono heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead.
Things were deteriorating for the away team as huono scored another to make it 3 - 1 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for
D. Sobrinha after 41 minutes.
The visitors' right side was dangerous today;
J. Heinola made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily reduced the lead to make it 3 - 2 43 minutes into the match.
Halftime score was 3 - 2.
huono claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.
Attacking on the wings was the choice for pallottomatko, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack.
The visitors'
M. Ekenberg was alert after a cross coming in from the left, levelling the score at 3 - 3 after 55 minutes.
With 65 minutes played, the home side managed to get a 4 - 3 lead as
B. Henneuse flipped the ball in after a cross from the right.
By then
B. Henneuse had scored three goals - a hat trick!
The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave
M. Vuorisalmi from pallottomatko a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 66 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient!
huono put themselves up 5 - 3 when
D. Sobrinha broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake.
huono had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.
The most dominating huono player was without a doubt
H. Saskavets.
On the other hand,
D. Marmolejo's play was disheartening.
pallottomatko's best player was
M. Sánchez-Pertejo.
A. Treu was a disappointment, however.
The match ends 5 - 3.