Kungfusion 3 - 1 fenomenos (378335184)

Dark skies made the crowd of 58000 at Kisho Kurokawa Stadium a little nervous, but the rain held off. Patrick Danielsson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Hagai Kaplan and Rosalvo Negri. Kungfusion started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. They fielded: Jeon - Clementelli, Johansen - Kolev, Marcos, Jiménez Quirós, Deflandre, Ciprián - Al-Sulaiti, Petrov, Pedrique.

fenomenos had chosen a strategic 4-3-3 formation. Lineup: Bartels - Rotter, Liessens, Martínez, Williamson - Rimoldi, Villatoro, Hruša - Arrom, Moca, Azkona.

Kungfusion seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for fenomenos. After 17 minutes, H. Al-Sulaiti sprinted between the opposing defenders and squared the ball, but the keeper deflected J. Pedrique's shot. With 18 minutes played D. Marcos almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. Kungfusion were very close to putting themselves one up after 31 minutes as A. Clementelli got through on the left, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. At 34 minutes played, D. Marcos came in from the right with the intention of giving Kungfusion the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. Making his way up the middle 38 minutes into the match, D. Marcos almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert D. Bartels blocked it to keep the score level. Kungfusion took the lead after 41 minutes as a result of J. Pedrique's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. With 43 minutes played, the visitors could have drawn level after V. Hruša came through the middle, but his kick went wide. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Kungfusion, with 69 percent of the ball.

With 50 minutes played, Kungfusion put themselves up 2 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to H. Al-Sulaiti, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. Maybe due to the uphill battle the team was facing, the fenomenos manager looked to change things around. After 69 minutes, H. Williamson and R. Martínez swapped positions on the field. With 69 minutes played, the fenomenos coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. A. Palmhult came on, G. Liessens had to leave the fray. The fenomenos coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. The fenomenos players listened closely to their manager, as he gave new tactical instructions for the team. Kungfusion's G. Petrov left the field after 73 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was J. Monteiro Marques. 75 minutes into the match, A. Clementelli could have extended the lead, but his powerful free kick went just over the bar. S. Villatoro showed why he is feared on the counterattack, breaking through in the middle and scoring for fenomenos after 76 minutes to make the score 2 - 1. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the fenomenos manager used a brief break in play after 80 minutes to give the players new directives. After 80 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by H. Al-Sulaiti might have resulted in another goal for Kungfusion. However, D. Bartels made a spectacular save. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Kungfusion's R. Jiménez Quirós increasing the lead to 3 - 1. By now, the players in Kungfusion felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Kungfusion enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 62 percent of possession.

Kungfusion's top performer was clearly H. Al-Sulaiti. V. Ciprián turned in a dismal performance, however. fenomenos's best player was G. Moca. R. Martínez on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 1.