Medusa 1 - 3 DragonFighters (369114254)

The crowd of 43746 turning up at Skylla Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Anton Raukola was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rudolf Zaruba and Orfeas Nichtovios. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Medusa. The following players had been chosen: Kodolov - Ghani, Rashev, Durbe, Scheidecker - Roux, Heinen, Moreolo, Riesen, Valle - Bruvik.

DragonFighters started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. The following players took the field: Fürnkaes - Schenker, Westermann - Carmignani, Hasse, Haslimeier, Kermann, Engert - Romain, Spühler, Leger.

L. Spühler was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. S. Carmignani came close to putting the visiting team one up 3 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but F. Kodolov managed to tip the ball to a corner. 0 - 1 was the score with 21 minutes played, after F. Leger cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for DragonFighters. F. Leger was first to reach a ball launched long through the center from DragonFighters's defence 31 minutes into the game. He managed to keep his cool and beat the goalkeeper to make the score 0 - 2. DragonFighters's R. Westermann refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 36 minutes. An accurate cross from S. Carmignani of DragonFighters was met with a wonderful glancing header from F. Leger, hitting the inside base of the post before nestling into the back of the net for 0 - 3. At that, F. Leger was noted down for a hat trick! After this, you could see that the players of DragonFighters were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, F. Roux got himself booked. The manager of Medusa was not happy. It was 0 - 3 at the break. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams in terms of possession.

S. Carmignani came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over F. Kodolov but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. A scuffle developed as players from both sides clashed following a tussle in the centre of the field 66 minutes into the match. After regaining order and consulting his linesman, the referee called Medusa's T. Moreolo to one side and produced a red card for the player. F. Kodolov was handed the Medusa captain's armband. G. Heinen sailed high above the opponents as he headed in a corner kick from T. Riesen after 74 minutes of play, making the score 1 - 3. 86 minutes into the game, R. Haslimeier had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came R. Kirner. With 87 minutes played, I. Engert nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by DragonFighters, with 55 percent of the ball.

Most important Medusa player was O. Bruvik. D. Valle turned in a dismal performance, however. DragonFighters's best player was F. Hasse. R. Westermann was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 3.