linkans 0 - 2 Koor (393236317)

48699 spectators had found their way to Scandinavium, despite the heavy rain. Aleksi Nihtinen was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jan C. Lövby and Przemysław Luczak. linkans started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. They fielded: Billstad - Billblad, Wilhelm, Hassellius, Josefsson - Börjesson, Eriksson, van Zaanen, Oskarsson, Paolucci - Schmidtke.

Koor decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players took the field: Rosado - Capac, Paschalis, Cenoura - van der Wolff, Larsen, Jara, MacGinnis, Kalby - Billner, Della Pietra.

Koor were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. M. Capac didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. After 23 minutes a well-practised indirect free kick routine by Koor was easily anticipated by the defenders. The players forward were so well marked, they were left with few viable options. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Koor, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Koor's P. Paschalis after 26 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, W. Schmidtke got himself booked. The manager of linkans was not happy. Koor's J. Cenoura refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 35 minutes. linkans tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. It was 0 - 1 at the break. Neither team was controlling the possession at this point in the match, with the stats showing a 50:50 split.

Some fine passing in the middle of the pitch, carving open the away defence, should have led to a goal for linkans, but M. Paolucci's shot went over the bar. Koor were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. The home crowd was not impressed when J. Cenoura came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 63 minutes. Koor were now up 0 - 2. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave J. Oskarsson from linkans a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 68 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! T. Josefsson challenged the visitors' central defence eagerly, producing a good chance 72 minutes into the game as he went for a through ball. But, as so many times before, the guests' defensive efforts got the best of it. It was a bad day for the usually speedy R. Billner. The mud seemed to slow him down. Koor's T. Jara made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 87 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. linkans claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

W. Schmidtke performed admirably for linkans. R. Billblad on the other hand, had a terrible day. Koor's top performer was clearly M. Capac. J. Cenoura turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 0 - 2.