Group 1 - 8 CityGoals (393402716)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 53036 at A-J Group Arena today. José Mota was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Bogdan Tudoran and Jonas Amundsen. Group tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Pane - Fassio, Kolehmainen, Lounavuori - Briendl, Vikstedt, Popkiewicz, Vallius - Weickhamann, Vakkila, Kisko.

CityGoals started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Pinezhaninov - Egeland, Brühlmann, Rashkovski - Närhi, Rodríguez, Ikkelä, Koskenheimo, Patokoski - Hoffman, Medina Arias.

Group were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Today, CityGoals's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Making his way up the middle 8 minutes into the match, O. Kolehmainen almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert V. Pinezhaninov blocked it to keep the score level. Group's T. Vakkila tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but couldn't get past the visitors' defenders. With 18 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. J. Hoffman put the ball away for 0 - 1. CityGoals's J. Hoffman excelled in some fine tricks that completely confused O. Vikstedt - and the finish was no less spectacular - 0 - 2! After this, you could see that the players of CityGoals were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. After 29 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed J. Patokoski to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 3. Halftime score was 0 - 3. CityGoals enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 66 percent of possession.

M. Popkiewicz was in the clear after breaking the offside trap following a Group counterattack from the left after 48 minutes. His neat finish made the score 1 - 3. J. Hoffman increased CityGoals's lead to 1 - 4 with a superb free kick strike that flew in just under the far top corner. This third goal completed a hattrick for J. Hoffman. The corner kick from J. Hoffman was powerfully met by the head of J. Ikkelä to make the score 1 - 5. It was obvious that CityGoals had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. With 60 minutes played, CityGoals put themselves up 1 - 6 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. The scorer was R. Medina Arias. The home crowd was not impressed when A. Koskenheimo came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 63 minutes. CityGoals were now up 1 - 7. With 68 minutes played, A. Kisko of Group fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. R. Medina Arias increased the visitors' lead by putting a volley away after a pass from the right. 1 - 8. T. Egeland left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 75 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. V. Nenis was the replacement. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by CityGoals, with 69 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Group player was without a doubt P. Vallius. O. Vikstedt on the other hand, had a terrible day. CityGoals's top performer was clearly R. Medina Arias. V. Nenis turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 8.