Jesienna 3 - 1 Aras (387375851)

Dark skies made the crowd of 18350 at CF Jesienna Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Ataíde Nabo was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Niklas Björnsson and Basarab Selaru. Jesienna had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. The following players took the field: Amerek - Pap, Huhtala, Valve, Levy - Kozak, Morawitz, van Brouwershaven, Nofre, Gómez - Dembour.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Aras. Lineup: Stere - Idźkowski, Møller Pedersen, Elmshorn - Keindl, Soeiro, Gorbachev, Ławrynowicz, Kretsos - Jína, Constantin.

Today, Jesienna's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. After 16 minutes, A. Gómez came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving Jesienna the lead. Aras's A. Soeiro got himself booked for a foul. After 36 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Jesienna found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to passable. Jesienna put in a good effort on the right, but R. Dembour saw his volley fly wide of the mark 37 minutes into the game. After 43 minutes, Jesienna raised their score by one when A. Gómez's dangerous low cross was cleverly tucked in at the near post by R. Dembour. 2 - 0. By now, the players in Jesienna felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. The home side's A. Kozak came close to extending the lead 44 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but H. Stere managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. 44 minutes into the game, Jesienna seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to inadequate. 2 - 0 was the score after the first half. Possession in this half belonged to Jesienna, who controlled the ball 56 percent of the time.

Despite his frustration resulting in the smashing of a few teacups, the coach of Jesienna was able to get his message across, and raised Jesienna's organisation to solid. The visitors got a chance to pulling one back after 56 minutes, due to a defensive blunder leaving A. Gorbachev completely unmarked. His strike was pathetic though, easy prey for the home side's keeper. The referee showed Jesienna's S. van Brouwershaven the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 61 minutes gone, Jesienna had a free kick in a decent position. Despite this being a great chance for a shot, they tried a cheeky move intended to bypass the defence. However, R. Dembour did not manage to connect with it cleanly and the ball went out. 63 minutes into the game, Jesienna seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a passable level of organisation. 67 minutes into the match, Aras replied and reduced the lead to 2 - 1. C. Constantin scored on a marvellous cross pass coming in from the left. 68 minutes into the game, R. Dembour had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came I. Tukaj. With 70 minutes played, S. Ławrynowicz came in from the right and could have evened the score, but the defenders successfully repelled the attack by Aras. There was concern in the stands when, at the 72 minute mark, Jesienna's V. Nofre hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. A great save by keeper H. Stere after 75 minutes kept the visitors in the game after S. van Brouwershaven struck from the left with a real cannonball. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave H. Elmshorn from Aras a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 77 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! The player down was B. Pap. The Jesienna bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. Jesienna hit back on the counter attack 83 minutes into the game with a free kick. Initially it seemed wasted, hit wide towards the wing. But there was an idea to it - the ball was then crossed towards I. Tukaj, who was waiting for it in the box. That's 3 - 1! Don't forget to thank the set pieces coach for that idea! Coming from the right, K. Huhtala almost managed to score another goal for Jesienna, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Jesienna, with 56 percent of the ball.

Most important Jesienna player was V. Nofre. M. Valve on the other hand, had a terrible day. C. Constantin performed admirably for Aras. On the other hand, E. Idźkowski's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 1.