Merenquito 5 - 1 Mosquitos (392426850)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 31557 at Can Trosky today. Solomone Bogan was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Fabrice Thomas and Vítor Antunes. Merenquito had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Perheentupa - Nájera, Schönbauer, Valsera - Lingen, Rajs, Aubry, Kurtyka, Morin - Weitkamp, Galícia.

Mosquitos started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Pombo - Vivaldo, Boyadzhiev, Château, Zedníček - Lira, Rygol, Rotter, Patoka - Mäkitupa, Serametakis.

Merenquito saw most attack opportunities on the wings. For their match strategy, Mosquitos had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. With 16 minutes played T. Galícia almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. 0 - 1 was the score with 26 minutes played, after M. Serametakis cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for Mosquitos. The crowd was on its feet 27 minutes into the match, as Merenquito's G. Schönbauer found himself unmarked in front of the goal after a dash up the left side. He calmly put away the 1 - 1 equaliser. 29 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but V. Zedníček, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. Mosquitos had to make a substitution after 39 minutes. M. Serametakis limped off the field and was replaced by E. Eijsvogel. J. Rygol received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 40 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. It was obvious that Merenquito had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. Merenquito fans held their breath as H. Weitkamp scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 2 - 1! Halftime score was 2 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to Mosquitos, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Merenquito's T. Galícia increased the lead to 3 - 1, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 52 minutes. The coach of Merenquito was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 69 minutes, C. Donoso came on for S. Valsera. In the lead, Merenquito adjusted their style of play with 70 minutes gone. The Merenquito coach was visibly pleased with the score so far, but still ordered a few tactical changes 70 minutes into the game. After 72 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and R. Lingen gave the Merenquito supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 1. The Merenquito free kick 75 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of M. Kurtyka, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 5 - 1! Confident in their lead, Merenquito's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Mosquitos claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

The most dominating Merenquito player was without a doubt H. Weitkamp. However, J. Morin made a disastrous appearance. Most important Mosquitos player was J. Mäkitupa. J. Lira on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 5 - 1.