slice 2 - 0 Balrogs (394160595)

The crowd of 2774 turning up at Billy Bremner Memorial Stadium today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Nunzius Renfer was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Matías Sivisky and Buddy Masson. slice tactics involved an interesting 5-3-2 combination. The following players took the field: Zárate - Waplington, Orneli, Lavaud, Redlingshofer, Elias - Studnicki-Gisbert, De Matteis, Diener - Mingelen, Grimaux.

Balrogs had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. They fielded: Kultima - Ingerttilä, Recher - Jeurissen, Nascimento, Königsbacher, Blind, Germon - Hunt, Petuhov, Mazanjuk.

slice's H. Zárate refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 5 minutes. S. Studnicki-Gisbert did not have a good day today, often losing his footing on the muddy pitch. slice fans held their breath as S. Studnicki-Gisbert scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 1 - 0! A. Waplington had a fantastic opportunity to put slice up another goal 26 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. slice solidified their lead at the 27 minute mark, as G. Grimaux dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0. Confident in their lead, slice's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. The muddy pitch made the game a gritty affair, which seemed to suit A. Petuhov just fine. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like N. De Matteis. 2 - 0 was the halftime score. Balrogs claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

After 77 minutes, slice were awarded a free kick. Rather than shooting straight at goal, the taker went for an indirect variant which seemed to take his team mates a bit by surprise. R. Diener did attempt a finish, but from an awkward position, sending the ball into the away fans. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Balrogs, with 55 percent of the ball.

Most important slice player was M. Redlingshofer. G. Elias on the other hand, had a terrible day. Balrogs's best player was A. Petuhov. S. Nascimento turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 0.