Zacatecas 4 - 3 Eintracht (389433028)

34687 spectators had found their way to Kick Ass Park, despite the heavy rain. Martín Abate was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Sieb Kruijs and Pero Radeljić. Zacatecas started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Kósa - Astrup, Tylicki, Mikkelsen, Fink Jensen - Bach Hansen, Vesiropoulos, Claassen, Fatouros - Premoli, Kaiser.

Eintracht tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Melson - Kiilerich, Wollesen, Trasborg - Eriksen, Jørgensen, Bjerrum, Færgemann, Isbrand - Inácio, Gohlke.

Zacatecas were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. A mistake by the home side's central defence after 2 minutes allowed N. Wollesen to score for Eintracht. The scoreboard now read 0 - 1. 11 minutes in, and Zacatecas were able to score the equalising goal to make it 1 - 1 when N. Kaiser picked up a pass coming in from the right and chipped it past the away team's keeper. It was a bad day for the usually speedy K. Fatouros. The mud seemed to slow him down. It was obvious that Zacatecas had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Zacatecas took the lead after 21 minutes as a result of O. Mikkelsen's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 2 - 1. 23 minutes into the game, E. Claassen had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came O. Szőnyegi. It was 2 - 1 at the break. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Eintracht, with 54 percent of the ball.

Zacatecas made it 3 - 1 as N. Kaiser got a touch to the floated corner kick and flicked the ball to K. Fatouros who whipped a low drive in off the far post. M. Premoli wanted to play on, but the Zacatecas coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 50 minutes into the game by J. Norre. The home side's O. Szőnyegi came close to extending the lead 62 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but V. Melson managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Morale on the visitors' bench was greatly improved when their C. Inácio reduced the lead to make it 3 - 2 after 65 minutes, following a pass from the right. Zacatecas's M. Bach Hansen was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 70 minutes. Players in Zacatecas heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. After 71 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and N. Kaiser gave the Zacatecas supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 2. Confident in their lead, Zacatecas's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Eintracht managed to reduce the score to 4 - 3 as C. Færgemann finished off a well-played combination from the left, easily carving through the defence. Zacatecas's N. Kaiser was shown a yellow card after 80 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A loud groan was heard from the fans of Eintracht, as M. Isbrand left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. J. Elmose took his place on the field. A cross coming in on the right hand side left M. Bjerrum alone in front of the goal after 85 minutes but his shot was woeful. N. Wollesen was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. Eintracht claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 56 percent.

Most important Zacatecas player was N. Kaiser. O. Szőnyegi on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Eintracht player was without a doubt M. Bjerrum. T. Kiilerich was a disappointment, however. The match ends 4 - 3.