Liverpool 3 - 1 Pune (388132400)

Dark skies made the crowd of 29133 at Anfield East Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Francesco Castiglione was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Gijs van Agtmaal and Dor Even. The derby had been the talk of Stockholm all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. Liverpool started off with a 4-3-3 lineup. The following players had been chosen: De Waele - Kleuters, Caplain, Fernán Puig, Nikitović - Grove, Ochoa, MacCreath - Joos, Fjälldahl, Unzeitig.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Pune. They fielded: Fogelner - Edin, Matsson, Gröönhall - Fridbeck, Dalskog, Hökquist, Bengtsson, Bladgård - Fredriksson, Gottskär.

Liverpool seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. 6 minutes into the game, G. Gottskär had a great chance to put his team ahead, but his kick from the left went wide. S. Kleuters of Liverpool received a yellow card after 19 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Liverpool took the lead after 22 minutes as a result of B. Grove's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. The referee showed Liverpool's B. Grove the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The home team will be cursing K. Gröönhall 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 29 minutes. Making his way up the middle 34 minutes into the match, G. Unzeitig almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert A. Fogelner blocked it to keep the score level. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, G. Unzeitig got himself booked. The manager of Liverpool was not happy. It was 1 - 1 at the break. Pune had most of the ball, with 55 percent of possession.

This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when L. Bengtsson slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against B. De Waele, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. 72 minutes into the match, Pune nearly took the lead, as J. Edin broke through on the right. B. De Waele made the save, however. After 75 minutes of play, J. MacCreath gave the home team a 2 - 1 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Liverpool solidified their lead at the 76 minute mark, as H. Joos dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 3 - 1. With 80 minutes played, W. Fjälldahl of Liverpool fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. Pune enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

G. Unzeitig performed admirably for Liverpool. A. Caplain turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important Pune player was L. Bengtsson. However, K. Gröönhall made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 1.