Curtius 1 - 3 Buffalo (388538528)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 13956 at Curtius Arena Liege today. Cyril Humbert was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tip Steinmeijer and Lenny Göransson. Curtius tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. The following players took the field: Vanlerberghe - Vercampt, Dauchot, Makricheris, Monsaert - Keereman, Moulard, Decraecker, Zanolin, Hocquet - Vaele.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Buffalo. Starters: Janda - Zeltzer, Fiorese, Jansson - Eldin, Segarra, Stoklossa, Danisch, Pappone - Bermejo, van Essen.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Curtius. Buffalo clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. R. Vanlerberghe looked great 7 minutes into the match after stopping a shot from the middle of the penalty area from the visitors' M. Pappone. Buffalo's G. Danisch was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 24 minutes. With 35 minutes played, the excellent ball from the wing by Curtius's Y. Keereman reached G. Hocquet's head, and he is not one to miss such an opportunity - 1 - 0. Some brilliant football from the visitors' right wing resulted in a levelling of the score as Buffalo's A. Bermejo put the ball in the onion bag after 38 minutes to make it 1 - 1. The game was close to savage at times, and Buffalo's G. Danisch received a second yellow card after 39 minutes; his ticket out of the game. Buffalo had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 41 minutes in when H. Stoklossa came up alone against R. Vanlerberghe who managed a block. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to Buffalo, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Buffalo took the lead 50 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. A. van Essen was the scorer. With 64 minutes played, A. Decraecker of Curtius fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. With 66 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed M. Pappone of Buffalo to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 1 - 3. The players of Buffalo now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Buffalo enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 51 percent of possession.

The most dominating Curtius player was without a doubt G. Vaele. On the other hand, G. Dauchot's play was disheartening. A. Bermejo performed admirably for Buffalo. M. Pappone turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 3.