Magnificent 2 - 2 Koninklijke (388527617)

Dark skies made the crowd of 30850 at Sint Deceuster a little nervous, but the rain held off. Peter Jung was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Achim Bauder and Wolfgang Mencher. The derby had been the talk of Antwerpen all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. Magnificent tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: bin Ismail - MacAndrew, Buffel, Gómez - Dumont, Di Gabriele, Holbură, Decaux, Sadowa - Saydam, Gottarelli.

A 4-3-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Koninklijke. The following players took the field: Paiva - Slight, Kalamut, Brekveld, Marlier - Gigante, Radresa, Macikowski - Bert, Vis, Kusé.

Koninklijke were relying on their ability to counter-attack. At 8 minutes played, E. Buffel came in from the right with the intention of giving Magnificent the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. Koninklijke took the lead 26 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. F. Kusé was the scorer. 36 minutes into the game, Koninklijke seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a passable level of organisation. With 37 minutes played, Magnificent's A. Saydam found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. N. Radresa showed why he is feared on the counterattack, breaking through in the middle and scoring for Koninklijke after 38 minutes to make the score 0 - 2. As D. MacAndrew had, completely unprovoked, swept the legs out from under an opponent in front of a linesman, the referee gave the Magnificent player a red card without batting an eyelid. It was 0 - 2 at the break. Magnificent enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 60 percent of possession.

Despite his frustration resulting in the smashing of a few teacups, the coach of Koninklijke was able to get his message across, and raised Koninklijke's organisation to solid. Magnificent's S. Decaux was shown a yellow card after 49 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A loud groan was heard from the fans of Koninklijke, as R. Brekveld left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. D. Dalcq took his place on the field. With 51 minutes played, A. Saydam was very close to reducing the score for Magnificent with a low drive from the left, but a defender stuck his foot out just in the nick of time, blocking the shot to a corner. The referee showed Magnificent's M. Holbură the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Magnificent had to make a substitution after 62 minutes. E. Buffel limped off the field and was replaced by L. Bojanić. S. Decaux challenged the visitors' central defence eagerly, producing a good chance 65 minutes into the game as he went for a through ball. But, as so many times before, the guests' defensive efforts got the best of it. 66 minutes into the game Koninklijke managed a counterattack, but P. Bert took a soft shot from the left flank that was easy prey for the alert keeper. 69 minutes into the game, Koninklijke had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to poor. The home team's supporters got excited again when F. Gottarelli broke through the visitors' central defence and caught their keeper off guard, making it 1 - 2. 72 minutes in, Koninklijke's C. Macikowski received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The player down was S. Decaux. The Magnificent bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. 86 minutes into the match, Magnificent's G. Di Gabriele maneuvered his way around the opposition on the left flank, delighting the crowd with his twists and turns. The effort paid off as the ball found the back of the net, evening the score at 2 - 2. Possession in this half belonged to Magnificent, who controlled the ball 72 percent of the time.

Most important Magnificent player was G. Di Gabriele. On the other hand, A. bin Ismail's play was disheartening. The most dominating Koninklijke player was without a doubt P. Bert. Z. Kalamut on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 2.