Magnificent 1 - 2 Argentos (394291594)

801 punters turned up at La Mazorca, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Stefan Bergby was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Raffaele Schloneger and Gary McAllister. Magnificent started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. Starters: Waligórski - Jayo Legario, Impemba, Schmitt, Bührke, Otzen - Ciliberto, Mintz, Žementauskas, Richieri - Bastía.

Argentos had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Velázquez - Zítka, Panelo, Duggan - Milne, Gerchkovich, Moro, Cristicchi, Maza - Civile, Donatelli.

Today, Argentos's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. G. Moro behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 4 minutes as he gave the ball away to R. Žementauskas. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Argentos's E. Maza was shown a yellow card after 6 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 7 minutes into the game, Magnificent had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to passable. M. Richieri of Magnificent received a yellow card after 23 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. After 26 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Magnificent found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to passable. M. Richieri made one of his many fine passes from the wing into the middle 40 minutes into the match. G. Bastía bravely attempted to execute a diving header and the ball was met firmly with his forehead for Magnificent. 1 - 0. A cross coming in on the right hand side left C. Civile alone in front of the goal after 41 minutes but his shot was woeful. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Impemba from Magnificent a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 42 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! A loud groan was heard from the fans of Argentos, as C. Civile left the pitch in too much pain to finish the match. M. Lee took his place on the field. 1 - 0 was the score after the first half. Argentos enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 63 percent of possession.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that Magnificent had solid organisation. Argentos were close to putting the equaliser away after 47 minutes as the opposing defence lost control of the ball to M. Zítka in a scuffle towards the left of the goal, but in the end the ball was cleared over the dead ball line. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, M. Gerchkovich got himself booked. The manager of Argentos was not happy. G. Bastía unleashed a swerving effort from the right that the visitors' keeper did well to tip wide. After 56 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by L. Bührke might have resulted in another goal for Magnificent. However, G. Velázquez made a spectacular save. 78 minutes into the game, Magnificent seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a passable level of organisation. The visitors' M. Donatelli was alert after a cross coming in from the left, levelling the score at 1 - 1 after 79 minutes. Argentos claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 61 percent.

Still tied after 90 minutes, the match continued into extra time. The Magnificent players spent the break getting a rerun of the team's tactical organisation and regained a solid organisation when the game started again. A mistake by the home side's central defence after 94 minutes allowed E. Maza to score for Argentos. The scoreboard now read 1 - 2. With that Argentos had won the game in extra time. E. Ciliberto performed admirably for Magnificent. R. Žementauskas was a disappointment, however. Most important Argentos player was M. Donatelli. M. Gerchkovich turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 2.