IJsselstein 3 - 3 Graafschap (390249296)

46420 spectators arrived at Bola IJsselstein Stadion, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Waldemar van Staaveren was the appointed referee. IJsselstein had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Starters: van Helmont - Montanaro, Christi, Popov - Bidaurreta, Zuiderveld, Paalman, Furuseth, Shopov - Ricciardi, Biesterveld.

Graafschap started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Klepper - Zoet, van Weeren, Delger - Schalij, Vossers, van Vorselen, Zilkens, Ziezenis - Kranenburg, Cappilli.

IJsselstein made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left M. Biesterveld completely alone with keeper D. Klepper, who made a spectacular block. M. Biesterveld caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 21 minutes. This gave IJsselstein the 1 - 0 lead. The referee showed Graafschap's J. Schalij the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Some brilliant football from the visitors' right wing resulted in a levelling of the score as Graafschap's P. Kranenburg put the ball in the onion bag after 29 minutes to make it 1 - 1. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to D. Furuseth, but the IJsselstein player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 2 - 1! The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 1. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams in terms of possession.

A lot of people in the terraces claimed the penalty resulting in Graafschap's P. Kranenburg equaliser for 2 - 2 was a mistake by the referee. He did, however, have a very good view of the situation from his position. Given a free kick close to the byline, Graafschap tried a move that loyal fans may recognise from training. A pass to the side pulled the defence out of position which let W. Zoet slip through on goal. He didn't have to break his stride, and slipped the ball past the keeper to make it 2 - 3, 62 minutes into the game. As the game started to slip away for IJsselstein, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. L. Popov was just a finger's breadth away from an equaliser for IJsselstein with a strike from the left, but D. Klepper managed to ward the shot off for a corner. With the crowd on their feet chanting wildly, some great moves down the right hand side after 75 minutes gave IJsselstein a wonderful opportunity to level the score, and A. Shopov stepped up to the challenge. 3 - 3 Graafschap claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

IJsselstein's best player was M. Biesterveld. U. Bidaurreta on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Graafschap player was without a doubt J. Schalij. E. van Weeren was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 3.