Basque 1 - 1 F.C Q (389467106)

Dark skies made the crowd of 37113 at Stamford Basque Bridge a little nervous, but the rain held off. André Bendixen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Slobodan Popović and Rãzvan Avrămescu. Basque started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. They fielded: Albacar - Pitsch, Azarfar, Tumminello, Navarrete, Karajan - Kowitz, Guiho, Kajala, Favart - Westerlaken.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for F.C Q. Starters: Sibery - Nielsen, Albrechtsen, Figueira, Fernández Fuentes - Arienti, Klöck, Vlastenec, Ribers Nielsen - Babão, Oostens.

Basque seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Slack defending gave Basque a chance to take the lead with 8 minutes played, but R. Westerlaken's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. The referee showed Basque's R. Navarrete the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 29 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, M. Albrechtsen needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. Coming in from the right, F.C Q had a good opportunity to convert on a counterattack after 43 minutes, but T. Ribers Nielsen's attempt to finish was easily stopped. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to Basque, who controlled the ball 70 percent of the time.

Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Basque, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. N. Azarfar gave Basque the lead as he successfully challenged the guests' central defenders, then slotted the ball into the bottom corner, giving the keeper no chance. 1 - 0 F.C Q's A. Klöck was shown a yellow card after 84 minutes for slicing down an opponent. With 87 minutes gone, Basque's R. Navarrete had to leave the pitch after talking back to the referee and receiving his second booking. F.C Q's D. Babão excelled in some fine tricks that completely confused V. Kajala - and the finish was no less spectacular - 1 - 1! After a fine move down the middle R. Westerlaken nearly gave the home side a goal after 89 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. Basque had to make a substitution after 89 minutes. K. Pitsch limped off the field and was replaced by L. Mägi. Basque claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 63 percent.

Basque's best player was G. Favart. N. Azarfar was a disappointment, however. T. Oostens performed admirably for F.C Q. On the other hand, M. Albrechtsen's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 1.