jaguare 1 - 6 Lótus (393058113)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and estadio conilon saw a crowd turnout of 47000. Clément Ecomard was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Iulian Vărzaru and Alessandro Bella. jaguare decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Palmstål - Leonardis, Disi, Dausner - Mrvić, van Schijndel, Shinfeld, Bernhardsson, Schwerz - Álvarez, Abbott.

Lótus tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Steven - Türk, Fernandes - Balissat, Padkjær, Ståhlér, Vazos, Vermeir - Dornelles, Diníz, Cantareira.

The wings were the focus of most of Lótus's attacks today. Lótus were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. Lótus's M. Cantareira managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 9 minutes. 0 - 1. With 22 minutes played, after a good run down the left, M. Abbott went down looking for a penalty after a challenge from the visitors' right fullback, but the referee waved play on, and later warned him for diving. R. Dornelles of Lótus took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 23 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 2. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Lótus lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. It was obvious that Lótus had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from R. Dornelles after 25 minutes, and prevented Lótus from going up another goal. That Lótus's M. Cantareira has the ability of doing what no one expects him to do was shown as he ran over an opposing defender, snatched the ball and passed to C. Diníz who hit it hard into the wide open goal after 28 minutes: 0 - 3! M. Abbott was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by D. Bernhardsson, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. The Lótus players could smell victory in the air. C. Diníz wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for R. Vesamaa after 41 minutes. Halftime score was 0 - 3. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Lótus, with 51 percent of the ball.

With 46 minutes played, the jaguare coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. D. Lardner came on, Á. Schwerz had to leave the fray. Lótus had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. With the scoreboard showing that 53 minutes had been played, Lótus nearly put themselves up another goal after H. Balissat came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Lótus, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. After 57 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed R. Vesamaa to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 4. Lótus increased the lead to 0 - 5 as H. Padkjær scored from the penalty spot, putting the ball in near the top left corner. What ever got into P. Ståhlér, the crowd mumbled, as he suddenly struck a cross pass through his own defence - ending up right in front of jaguare's E. Álvarez, who easily put the ball away for 1 - 5 after 66 minutes. With 72 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed M. Cantareira of Lótus to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 1 - 6. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as M. Leonardis tried lifting the ball over keeper A. Steven. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. Lótus claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

J. Disi performed admirably for jaguare. On the other hand, H. Palmstål's play was disheartening. The most dominating Lótus player was without a doubt R. Vesamaa. R. Dornelles was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 6.