SKOPSKO 1 - 4 KaRbulSka (381702858)

Dark skies made the crowd of 39699 at SAKAM SKOPSKO Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Gaitán Munitis was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Vladimir Ivanyuk and Egon Levgrün. SKOPSKO started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Popovski - Preda, Dimitrijević - Perkuhn, Ciepielski, Nonev, Hofmann, Dębicki - Echazarreta, Bresliev, Hygen.

KaRbulSka had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Nivajoki - Clark, Petrović, Tuhkanen - Janchevski, Osmani, Serafimovski, Galvis, Wittwer - Loebbeke, Carrilho.

SKOPSKO demonstrated their creative tactics on the field. It was an obvious ambition of KaRbulSka to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. B. Wittwer came close to putting the visiting team one up 4 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but P. Popovski managed to tip the ball to a corner. B. Wittwer had a good try after 11 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide. A. Janchevski almost seemed to dance around D. Preda, his movements were so smooth. Unfortunately for KaRbulSka, his finish ended up on the wrong side of the post. Halftime score was 0 - 0. KaRbulSka claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

Priding himself in being an active coach, the KaRbulSka manager gave new instructions to his players after 55 minutes. The terraces were silenced after 58 minutes when KaRbulSka's H. Carrilho put the guests ahead 0 - 1, following an attack on the right. The crowd chanted their encouragement as SKOPSKO's R. Perkuhn came in from the right after 68 minutes and put the ball in the net to level the score at 1 - 1. With the match clock at 69 minutes, KaRbulSka modified their style of play a little bit. The coach of KaRbulSka wanted to try to change things around after 72 minutes, and gave new tactical instructions. A mistake by the home side's central defence after 73 minutes allowed C. Loebbeke to score for KaRbulSka. The scoreboard now read 1 - 2. With 79 minutes played, KaRbulSka's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to G. Serafimovski he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 1 - 3. KaRbulSka's A. Janchevski had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 82 minutes having been played. E. Romero Maura was the replacement. The home crowd was not impressed when H. Carrilho came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 84 minutes. KaRbulSka were now up 1 - 4. At this point, it was obvious that the players of KaRbulSka lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. With 85 minutes played, N. Nonev of SKOPSKO fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. M. Dimitrijević did everything he could to get one back for his SKOPSKO, but keeper T. Nivajoki denied him with a spectacular block. KaRbulSka's G. Serafimovski made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 88 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by KaRbulSka, with 57 percent of the ball.

SKOPSKO's best player was G. Hygen. N. Nonev on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important KaRbulSka player was C. Loebbeke. However, T. Nivajoki made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 4.