skeloOo 4 - 1 Rykers (394283904)

2553 spectators had found their way to G R A C I A S P E P :*:(, despite the heavy rain. Daniel Utterstad was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ingo Bornstein and Alessandro Anfuffo. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for skeloOo. Lineup: Umikashvili - Amilakhvari, Thompson, Mikaelian - Maurel, Halminen, Hamilton, Openfeld - Buccisano, Steg, Bagapshi.

Rykers tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: Lenuzzi - Michaud, Rušinić, Langford-Young, Rainio - Przybylski, Mardešić, Mihalić, Bărbulescu - Kapuralin, Crvelin.

skeloOo seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. After 1 minutes, the Rykers coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving I. Rušinić off the field. V. Žižak took his place. 5 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a Rykers substitution. J. Gagulić came on for P. Langford-Young. With 5 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, R. Mikaelian needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to F. Maurel, but the skeloOo player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! R. Mikaelian of skeloOo was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. After 19 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and R. Bagapshi gave the skeloOo supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 2 - 0. It was a bad day for the usually speedy F. Przybylski. The mud seemed to slow him down. It was 2 - 0 at the break. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by skeloOo, with 65 percent of the ball.

The referee showed Rykers's A. Michaud the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 64 minutes played, skeloOo's F. Maurel almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. The Rykers players listened closely to their manager, as he gave new tactical instructions for the team. The coach of skeloOo was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 73 minutes, X. Fontenelle came on for R. Bagapshi. J. Gagulić didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. X. Fontenelle squirmed through their central defence after 83 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 0. The players of skeloOo now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. The visitors' right side was dangerous today; F. Przybylski made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily reduced the lead to make it 3 - 1 86 minutes into the match. skeloOo solidified their lead at the 87 minute mark, as X. Fontenelle dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 4 - 1. 87 minutes in, skeloOo's M. Halminen received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for skeloOo, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. skeloOo's D. Amilakhvari saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 89 minutes. skeloOo enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 66 percent of possession.

The most dominating skeloOo player was without a doubt X. Fontenelle. D. Amilakhvari was a disappointment, however. I. Bărbulescu performed admirably for Rykers. V. Žižak turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 4 - 1.