Ascendancy 2 - 1 Grabenstraße (364299522)

It had rained all day, but 1792 hardy fans still made it out to Ascension Arena. Stefan Alexandersson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Héctor Villaviudas and Enzo Cassano. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Ascendancy. They fielded: Toman - Brajko, Glavina, Moslavac - Volavc, Vugrinec, Nežmahen, Ošlovnik - Sluga, Smič, Rački.

Grabenstraße started off with a 5-5-0 lineup. Lineup: Gustavsson - Fillaudeau, Marcet, Sklovskiy, van Kassel, Kwach - Houzet, Zinzen, Loncle, Liszkowski, Hölze -.

Ascendancy mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. It was an obvious ambition of Grabenstraße to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. The celebrations in the stands could only mean one thing - K. Vugrinec's free kick had found the back of the net and put Ascendancy ahead 1 - 0! K. Brajko should probably have put his team up another goal after 16 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by M. Gustavsson kept the visitors in the game. 25 minutes in, Grabenstraße appeared unsure on how to play and their organisation was only passable. Thighs bulging, S. Glavina charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. T. Smič could have put Ascendancy up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 43 minutes. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Ascendancy scored another to make it 2 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for S. Rački after 43 minutes. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Ascendancy had most of the ball, with 62 percent of possession.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that Grabenstraße had solid organisation. 54 minutes into the match, Grabenstraße replied and reduced the lead to 2 - 1. W. Liszkowski scored on a marvellous cross pass coming in from the left. Ascendancy's K. Vugrinec swung in a good chance from the left, but the visitors' defence were able to clear the ball. A. Sluga had a hard time on the waterlogged pitch - his trademark technique was nowhere in sight today. Ascendancy's S. Rački left the field after 73 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was M. Lapanja. Grabenstraße almost scored after a swift counterattack 77 minutes into the game, but L. Loncle put the shot from the left flank just outside the goal. 79 minutes into the game, Grabenstraße seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a weak level of organisation. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Ascendancy, with 63 percent of the ball.

Most important Ascendancy player was K. Vugrinec. On the other hand, M. Lapanja's play was disheartening. Grabenstraße's top performer was clearly W. Liszkowski. S. Marcet turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 1.