Melsele 2 - 3 Koninklijke (372985945)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and De Waaslandput saw a crowd turnout of 24023. Wulfram Witthaut was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Przemysław Czank and Rico van Nimwegen. Melsele decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Višnjić - Järvinen, Milenkov, Gębka - Ide, Bonne, Melon, Petr, Czóbel - Mancienne, Raquet.

Koninklijke tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players took the field: Radžiukynas - Meng, Lepore, Dalcq - Röling, Silvestre, Paulusz, Macikowski - Vis, Impilä, Rogge.

It was an obvious ambition of Melsele to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. Koninklijke mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. Melsele's J. Ide was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - R. Mancienne managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 1 - 0 after 14 minutes. Melsele played a good counterattacking move down the left 33 minutes into the match, with V. Petr finishing well for 2 - 0. Koninklijke's right side looked dangerous after 35 minutes, as J. Vis broke through. L. Višnjić continued to stifle them, however, as he made the save look easy. 36 minutes into the match, the visitors reduced the lead to 2 - 1 as a free kick by G. Lepore slunk past the home side's goalkeeper. 2 - 1 was the score after the first half. Koninklijke claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

J. Vis made a run for the goal 56 minutes into the game but the home team's left back managed to sort the situation out in the end. Koninklijke tied it all up, 60 minutes in, after a spectacular goal by B. Paulusz, who miraculously broke through the home side's central defence, making it 2 - 2. It was obvious that Melsele had instructions to attack on the wings instead of in the middle. 2 - 3 was the score with 64 minutes played, after B. Rogge cut through the central defence and chipped home a goal for Koninklijke. After 76 minutes a very unfortunate collision in the penalty area led to Koninklijke's V. Radžiukynas being carried off the pitch and replaced by L. Marlier. Melsele had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Melsele's best player was R. Gębka. L. Milenkov turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important Koninklijke player was J. Vis. However, L. Marlier made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 3.