3297 spectators had come to Stade des Tuilieres this cloudy day. Remy Eykenboom was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ole Spenke and Ibraheem Abdulah Abu-Abdul. Nice tactics involved an interesting 2-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Hbecha - Vercruysse, Pickart - Marcuzzi, Richard, Laurent, Lille, Pirès - Esparraguerra, Steiner.

Poznań1998 started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. The following players took the field: Mentes - Van de Genachte, Băbeanu, Murtojärvi, Schunck, Nymark - Mäkipää, Galatsis, Geers, Beckdahl - Avenarius.

13 minutes into the match and the home team took a 1 - 0 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Nice was W. Vercruysse. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Avenarius from Poznań1998 a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 15 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! A great save by keeper A. Mentes after 34 minutes kept the visitors in the game after N. Lille struck from the left with a real cannonball. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Nice's L. Pirès increasing the lead to 2 - 0. L. Nymark's lack of experience almost gave Nice a goal after 38 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms. 41 minutes in, Nice appeared unsure on how to play and their organisation was only inadequate. After 42 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Nice found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to weak. 43 minutes into the game, Nice had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to poor. It was 2 - 0 at the break. Poznań1998 had most of the ball, with 52 percent of possession.

The Nice players spent the break getting a rerun of the team's tactical organisation and regained a passable organisation when the game started again. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Poznań1998's H. Mäkipää was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 55 minutes. G. Dal Mutto was given a chance to change things around. T. Galatsis became the new Poznań1998 captain. With 60 minutes played, the Poznań1998 coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. P. Smolka came on, A. Avenarius had to leave the fray. J. Marcuzzi wanted to play on, but the Nice coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 60 minutes into the game by O. Uśpieński. After 65 minutes, Poznań1998 switched T. Galatsis with N. Naumov, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. P. Smolka was the new captain of Poznań1998 - handed the armband by the departing player. 83 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as A. Laurent broke through, making the score 3 - 0 for Nice. 83 minutes into the game, Nice seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a inadequate level of organisation. The Nice players could smell victory in the air. L. Pirès wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for T. Lopes after 85 minutes. The visitors got a chance to pulling one back after 87 minutes, due to a defensive blunder leaving P. Smolka completely unmarked. His strike was pathetic though, easy prey for the home side's keeper. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Poznań1998, with 59 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Nice player was without a doubt F. Steiner. W. Vercruysse on the other hand, had a terrible day. Poznań1998's best player was P. Smolka. J. Murtojärvi turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 0.