team 2 - 3 Maradonas (392392928)

Dark skies made the crowd of 22433 at Tim team Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Lex Jeurissen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Björn Pettersson and Giovanni Grandolfo. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for team. Starters: Catraio - Bagheri, Deblanc, Kubajek - Votava, Duivenvoorden, Quentin, Omazin, Paczewski - Juszczyk, Montes.

Maradonas started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Vilte - Allén, Lill, Křivan - Pérez de Haro, Biró, Stumpf, Mészáros, Gallego - Sterk, Hargitai.

Maradonas demonstrated their creative tactics on the field. O. Biró behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 14 minutes as he gave the ball away to E. Duivenvoorden. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. L. Sterk of Maradonas received a yellow card after 20 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. 26 minutes into the match, Maradonas nearly took the lead, as Á. Mészáros broke through on the right. E. Catraio made the save, however. It was 0 - 0 at the break. Maradonas enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

With 78 minutes gone, E. Duivenvoorden suddenly found himself completely free on the right wing when a counterattack by team caught their opponents by surprise. Only a great save by the opposing keeper prevented him from scoring. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, S. Allén got himself booked. The manager of Maradonas was not happy. Maradonas claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

Still tied after 90 minutes, the match continued into extra time. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave H. Deblanc from team a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 102 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! With the score still deadlocked after extra time, the teams took to the field for a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner.

Clearly nervous from the start, team's T. Omazin took a long run up, but could only blast the ball over the bar. The score remains 0 - 0. Maradonas's O. Křivan looked like he knew exactly where he wanted to put the ball, but unfortunately his shot went wide of the left hand post. Still 0 - 0. team's G. Quentin looked nervous even as he was putting the ball on the spot. He didn't take much of a run up, and his weak shot was easily saved by the keeper. Maradonas's H. Gallego made no mistake. E. Catraio didn't have a chance. 0 - 1. team's E. Duivenvoorden didn't look like he was confident as he stepped up, and produced a badly struck penalty - right into the arms of C. Vilte. The score remained 0 - 1. When it comes to placing a ball precisely, L. Sterk is a real wizard. He put it safely away for Maradonas to make the score 0 - 2. team's H. Deblanc kept his cool as he faced down C. Vilte. His composure paid off as he scored easily for 1 - 2. Maradonas's S. Allén showed he has nerves of steel when it comes to penalties, easily changing the score to 1 - 3. team's D. Kubajek coolly put the ball past C. Vilte. 2 - 3. Oooh - how unlucky! Maradonas's B. Stumpf attempt hit the underside of the bar, but rebounded down into the grateful arms of E. Catraio. The score stays 2 - 3. G. Bagheri performed admirably for team. On the other hand, G. Quentin's play was disheartening. The most dominating Maradonas player was without a doubt S. Allén. However, E. Hargitai made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 3.