Gronk 0 - 2 Rojo (390914781)

Dark skies made the crowd of 21244 at C.A. Gronk Stadium a little nervous, but the rain held off. Jonas Meyer was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Robert ''Kuggarn'' Robertsson and Björn Ingesson. Gronk started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Viseur - Patti, Pizzinutti, Villaverde - Larivaara, Deijkers, Hadraba, Paulsson, Sörensson - Tofan, Ugarte.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Rojo. They fielded: Biteau - van de Moer, Valiunas, Stańczyk - Petryszyn, Modica, Moen, Blakely, Maiwald - Hurmuz, Konigsecker.

Gronk mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Many thought K. Paulsson ought to have been awarded a penalty 3 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around X. Biteau after a determined run through the middle. 0 - 1 was the score with 12 minutes played, after M. Petryszyn cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for Rojo. Some fine passing in the middle of the pitch, carving open the away defence, should have led to a goal for Gronk, but L. Tofan's shot went over the bar. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave G. Konigsecker from Rojo a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 18 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Unfortunately for Gronk, R. Pizzinutti was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. J. Di Bernardo replaced him. After 20 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed R. Modica to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 2. By now, the players in Rojo felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Rojo came close to extending their lead as O. Moen delivered a low effort on goal from the right after 28 minutes, but the angle was too narrow and the shot went harmlessly into the side netting. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. Gronk claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

Gronk were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. After the ball was lifted in from the left, G. Konigsecker was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 54 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, E. Ugarte got himself booked. The manager of Gronk was not happy. With 69 minutes played, M. Petryszyn nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. O. Moen wanted to play on, but the Rojo coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 70 minutes into the game by Q. Metsers. X. Biteau was the new captain of Rojo - handed the armband by the departing player. J. Viseur got a fingertip on G. Konigsecker's shot from the left 73 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. Gronk had most of the ball, with 61 percent of possession.

Gronk's best player was A. Deijkers. On the other hand, J. Di Bernardo's play was disheartening. Most important Rojo player was R. Modica. Q. Metsers on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 2.