rocket 3 - 2 Shining (385901073)

A scorching day at rocket star stadium, where 23554 spectators were in place for today's match. Gino Bulzaga was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Florian Witjes and Terence Plooij. rocket had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. Lineup: Depré - Covaci, Antikleiner - Rützel, Barrento, Tatosyan, Gaganatos, Čapovec - Blas, Blanchart, Rousseau.

Shining started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Grabovský - Oliva, Brindisi, Oltmans - Pimentinha, Hopchet, Mirică, Goulay, Pitou - Anihla, de Wijk.

6 minutes into the match, rocket's D. Blanchart popped up from nowhere, cheekily stole the ball off an opposition player and scored. 1 - 0. G. Gaganatos enjoyed the sunshine and demonstrated his stunning technique over and over again. The home team will be cursing S. Pimentinha for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem. The match was level at 1 - 1 after 28 minutes. Shining's R. de Wijk refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 29 minutes. Many thought D. Blanchart ought to have been awarded a penalty 36 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around P. Grabovský after a determined run through the middle. Shining's I. Oliva got himself booked for a foul. 1 - 1 was the halftime score. Possession in this half belonged to rocket, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

The intense heat forced G. Rousseau into making some errors because he couldn't seem to keep up with the others. Some great play up the middle by rocket led to a chance for D. Blanchart to score after 60 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. The most controversial moment of the game was likely the penalty given after 66 minutes. Shining's S. Pimentinha kept his concentration, despite the upset crowd, and calmly put the ball past the keeper to make the score 1 - 2. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, rocket's T. Antikleiner was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 72 minutes. E. Stuivenberg was given a chance to change things around. Shining will have to do without R. de Wijk for a time, due to a bad foot injury at the 73 minute mark. He was substituted by J. Krušlin. H. Anihla became the new Shining captain. E. Barrento showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 75 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 2 - 2 equaliser away. 76 minutes into the match and the home team took a 3 - 2 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for rocket was D. Blanchart. Neither team was controlling the possession at this point in the match, with the stats showing a 50:50 split.

rocket's top performer was clearly S. Covaci. P. Depré on the other hand, had a terrible day. J. Krušlin performed admirably for Shining. P. Grabovský turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 2.