Nieuwe 2 - 5 mountainbikers (373054505)

15552 fans braved the pouring rain at De Tempel-ier. Narcis Oltean was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Anatole Cornelis and Hamilton Fisk. Nieuwe tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Skandalidis - Fontaine, Scalco, Tamagnone - Gorun, Orenstedt, Kerkhofs, Kamin - Bonné, Tomaselli, Hanačík.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for mountainbikers. They fielded: Van Kerckhoven - Bartoş, Ushnanai, Ticchiarelli - Voorjans, Daniëls, Wasilak, Gomez, Van Der Kelen - Möckel, Johansen.

mountainbikers saw most attack opportunities on the wings. P. Orenstedt spent most of the time in a heap on the ground today, his normally rapid movement hindered by the slippery pitch. After 15 minutes, the visitors nearly went up a goal, but J. Van Der Kelen's free kick hit the crossbar. After 18 minutes, following yet another great corner, F. Scalco's flick on at the near post reached D. Bonné, who was just wide with his snapshot - the ball went out for a goal kick. A. Kerkhofs caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 25 minutes. This gave Nieuwe the 1 - 0 lead. Players in mountainbikers heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their central attacks to the wings instead. The crowd was silenced 26 minutes into the match as the visiting team's G. Voorjans came in from the left, levelling the score to 1 - 1. 31 minutes into the game, T. Johansen had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came J. Dave. mountainbikers took the lead 33 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. M. Gomez was the scorer. I. Ticchiarelli of mountainbikers was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. mountainbikers increased the lead to 1 - 3 as J. Van Der Kelen scored from the penalty spot, putting the ball in near the top left corner. It was 1 - 3 at the break. mountainbikers claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 56 percent.

After 53 minutes, mountainbikers's G. Voorjans burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 4. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave C. Daniëls from mountainbikers a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 58 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! The situation leading to Nieuwe's penalty 60 minutes into the match will be much debated after the game ends, but the competent L. Hanačík didn't hesitate to make the score 2 - 4. With 62 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed E. Ushnanai of mountainbikers to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 2 - 5. At this point, it was obvious that the players of mountainbikers lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Had it not been for one of the home defenders, J. Van Der Kelen would have put mountainbikers up another goal 69 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. C. Daniëls was, after 71 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors' lead with a well placed diving header after the ball had looped into the centre, but the home side's keeper M. Skandalidis made the save. mountainbikers had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Nieuwe's top performer was clearly A. Kerkhofs. On the other hand, F. Scalco's play was disheartening. Most important mountainbikers player was O. Möckel. K. Van Kerckhoven turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 5.