Almaty 2 - 0 L'illusion (387174902)

It had rained all day, but 31353 hardy fans still made it out to FC Spark Almaty St.. Daniel Carles was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Chad Heracleous and Frantisek Kund. Fans of both teams had been eagerly awaiting this Almaty Kalasy derby and were doing their best to outshout their opponents. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Almaty. Lineup: Sausset - Girard, Wickflod, Karim, Siemens - Frahm, Potter, da Conceição, Kukk, Möwe - Leventakis.

L'illusion started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players took the field: Campana - Rothén, Olah, Allwright, Tigãnus - Davidoff, Mádl, Marishkin, Crommelin, Søvik - Bessa.

Almaty took the lead 2 minutes in, as H. Karim broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave R. Möwe from Almaty a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 5 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Almaty claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

J. Søvik made a nice dash down the wing after 65 minutes, but was unable to get the cross into the box. A goal kick was awarded. The rain made it hard for players like A. Marishkin to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Almaty to 2 - 0 as R. Möwe finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. P. Frahm's speed was almost enough to give Almaty a goal after 80 minutes, but his nice pass to Y. Leventakis was not taken care of properly. Almaty had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

A. Potter performed admirably for Almaty. S. Sausset was a disappointment, however. The most dominating L'illusion player was without a doubt D. Mádl. However, S. Tigãnus made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 0.