Mario 1 - 5 hucktrick (392351390)

Dark skies made the crowd of 12000 at Mushroom Stadium a little nervous, but the rain held off. Cristian Iliescu was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ricardo Osorno and Mirosław Szwejkowski. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Mario. Lineup: Östsjö - Shufflebotham, Westerlaken, Bombaci, Alföldi - Pake, Middlebrooks, Crosley, Mansell - Levine, Gaguinho.

hucktrick tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Must - Hawle, Niesten - Farquharson, Jackson, Aste, Shelepanov, Jaramillo - Kelliher, Geffen, Calabrò.

Mario tried to focus their attacks down the middle. The goal for 1 - 0 was a funny story: after 6 minutes the seemingly nonchalant lob from Mario's M. Bombaci landed at the feet of A. Levine who sidefooted it into the net - nice goal! The visitors almost came back with an equaliser 34 minutes into the match after a good combination down the middle, but when G. Shelepanov tried to finish the attack, he couldn't deliver the shot hard enough to seriously challenge the keeper. After 36 minutes, hucktrick switched R. Jackson with A. Galt, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. After 38 minutes, the visitors tied it up at 1 - 1 when a fantastic pass from the left was finished off by F. Niesten. hucktrick took the lead 41 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. S. Kelliher was the scorer. G. Calabrò of hucktrick took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 44 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. 1 - 3 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by hucktrick, with 69 percent of the ball.

56 minutes into the game, hucktrick worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. O. Gaguinho of Mario was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Some fine movement on the left led to a hucktrick goal after 58 minutes, making it 1 - 4. P. Hawle was noted down as the scorer. The hucktrick players could smell victory in the air. P. Hawle wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for B. Sinha after 58 minutes. The coach of hucktrick was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 58 minutes, R. Delang came on for G. Calabrò. Mario had to make a substitution after 72 minutes. A. Crosley limped off the field and was replaced by M. Beckinsdale. The home side worked their way through the middle and almost got one back when A. Levine tried to sneak the ball past the keeper. R. Must was too alert for that! With 74 minutes played, hucktrick put themselves up 1 - 5 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was J. Jaramillo. At this point, it was obvious that the players of hucktrick lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. hucktrick claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 70 percent.

The most dominating Mario player was without a doubt A. Levine. N. Pake on the other hand, had a terrible day. hucktrick's top performer was clearly G. Aste. F. Niesten was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 5.