Linz 4 - 3 DB2008 (387499552)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 46521 to Waldegg Park. Jędrzej Wawrzykowski was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jean-Baptiste Strauss-Kahn and Benjamin Wöllhaf. Linz tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Mogrovejo - Cetinjanin, Degn, Drnjač, Granskog - Coelingh, Garnica, Kozár, Němeček - Godharvi, Kley.

DB2008 started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Barbon - Desplenter, Glikman, Dakoš - Viuhkola, Calzolari, Dyadkin, Eesik, Borredon - Gheorghe, Annecke.

Linz clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. The wings were the focus of most of DB2008's attacks today. With 6 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. M. Borredon put the ball away for 0 - 1. DB2008 had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. With 8 minutes played, DB2008 put themselves up 0 - 2 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was D. Dyadkin. Linz reduced the lead to 1 - 2 with 10 minutes on the clock when T. Kley got the best of a ball floated in from the left. The sun seemed to put H. Dakoš in a great mood, and he showed off his technical skills all match long. Linz's C. Kozár almost tied things up with 28 minutes played after breaking through on the right, but his shot deflected off the post. It was 1 - 2 at the break. DB2008 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

With the crowd on their feet chanting wildly, some great moves down the right hand side after 52 minutes gave Linz a wonderful opportunity to level the score, and A. Godharvi stepped up to the challenge. 2 - 2 Linz took the lead 53 minutes in, as A. Godharvi broke through on the left and put the 3 - 2 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. After 59 minutes, V. Němeček sent the corner kick right to A. Godharvi who headed it sharply past the keeper. 4 - 2! At that, A. Godharvi was noted down for a hat trick! After 60 minutes, DB2008 used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the DB2008 manager used a brief break in play after 60 minutes to give the players new directives. DB2008 were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. DB2008 had a fair chance to reply after 63 minutes due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end P. Gheorghe was slow to keep up with the play and was unable to make it into the penalty box to apply a finish. As the game started to slip away for DB2008, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. The DB2008 coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. There was concern in the stands when, at the 80 minute mark, Linz's D. Cetinjanin hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. V. Kröpfl was called on to replace Linz's R. Mogrovejo after 84 minutes following a nasty collision. The crowd roared its approval when V. Kröpfl somehow managed to block a shot which seemed to be a certain goal by DB2008's P. Gheorghe 85 minutes into the game. Linz almost scored after a swift counterattack 86 minutes into the game, but R. Garnica put the shot from the left flank just outside the goal. 87 minutes in, Linz's D. Cetinjanin received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Due to a severely mistimed tackle, P. Gheorghe of DB2008 spent some time on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. D. Degn found it hard to catch his breath today in the stifling heat. With 89 minutes showing on the scoreboard clock, DB2008 showed some good skill and were able to reduce the score to 4 - 3 when H. Annecke got past the home side's central defenders right in front of the goal. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, T. Calzolari got himself booked. The manager of DB2008 was not happy. DB2008 had most of the ball, with 56 percent of possession.

The most dominating Linz player was without a doubt T. Kley. However, V. Kröpfl made a disastrous appearance. D. Dyadkin performed admirably for DB2008. On the other hand, P. Gheorghe's play was disheartening. The match ends 4 - 3.