delimaster 3 - 5 Lizzys (390338777)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 17771 at delimaster a'dam today. Antti Rautajärvi was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Johan F. Wennstrand and Pedro Esteves. delimaster tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Pérez - Robbert, Gandon, Pinhal - Uccello, Douroux, Mund, Stirmlinger, Alonso - De Mangelaere, Berson.

Lizzys decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. Starters: Abalos - Merchant, Csollány, Herrling-Schreiber, Habeshaw - Harte, Sabbe, Pol, Simander - Schous, Nummela.

Today, Lizzys's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Lizzys's O. Habeshaw managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 2 minutes. 0 - 1. M. Simander of Lizzys took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 6 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 2. With 7 minutes played, Lizzys's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to M. Simander he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 0 - 3. The players of Lizzys now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. After 11 minutes, Lizzys's F. Schous swiftly ran past A. Gandon and nutmegged the keeper! 0 - 4. After 17 minutes, F. Berson had a good opportunity to reduce the scoreline for delimaster with a chance created through the middle, but wasn't cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. The referee showed delimaster's E. Uccello the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Halftime score was 0 - 4. delimaster enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 58 percent of possession.

delimaster's A. Gandon managed a superb strike from the left after 52 minutes that would have left goalkeeper M. Abalos without a chance, had it not hit the post. delimaster's F. Berson got the home crowd going when he finished off a left wing charge, reducing the away team's lead to 1 - 4. A lack of experience caused S. Pol to make a difficult dribble close to dangerous opponent F. Stirmlinger of delimaster, who took the opportunity to score making it 2 - 4. After 74 minutes, Lizzys raised their score by one when M. Simander's dangerous low cross was cleverly tucked in at the near post by R. Harte. 2 - 5. The local team's free kick specialist B. Pinhal, reduced the away team's lead to 3 - 5 with a humdinger of a shot after 78 minutes. delimaster's J. Alonso was shown a yellow card after 80 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 81 minutes into the match Lizzys's S. Pol head butted an opponent nastily, and so the referee sent him off immediately. Possession in this half belonged to delimaster, who controlled the ball 68 percent of the time.

delimaster's best player was D. Douroux. F. Pérez turned in a dismal performance, however. M. Simander performed admirably for Lizzys. On the other hand, J. Merchant's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 5.