Varana 0 - 1 Devis (366148519)

It was an exceptionally sunny day for the crowd of 33391 that came out to Varana F.C. Arena. Tim Dubbeldam was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Célio Sosa and Didier Fromant. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Varana. The following players had been chosen: Di Vaio - Elejabeitia, Carreto, Penchev - Serna, Kaarisalo, Serr, Csikós, Caniglia - Abulafia, Gattuso.

Devis decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. Starters: Formichi - Polvani, Neukäufer, Chira, Bello - Graef, Beenkens, Gobbens, Karremans - Houdart, Fernández.

13 minutes had elapsed when a great chance for Varana to take the lead after a good cross from the right found M. Abulafia alone with the keeper, but he chipped it to the wrong side of the post. Varana's V. Di Vaio left the field after 19 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was J. Box. The Varana captaincy was handed to M. Abulafia. Devis's E. Chira was shown a yellow card after 23 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Varana's E. Serna had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 26 minutes having been played. A. Sarko was the replacement. S. Houdart enjoyed the sunshine and demonstrated his stunning technique over and over again. 36 minutes into the game, E. Chira almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Halftime score was 0 - 0. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams in terms of possession.

After 54 minutes, Devis's W. Beenkens made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. With 59 minutes played, W. Beenkens of Devis fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. W. Beenkens knew he was in trouble after hacking down an opponent. Despite his pleading with the referee, the Devis player was shown a second yellow card and dismissed from the game. Varana were forced into a substitution as A. Caniglia couldn't continue due to some rough treatment, forcing S. Beggiato to come in off the bench. The referee showed Varana's S. Beggiato the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Possession in this half belonged to Varana, who controlled the ball 57 percent of the time.

Most important Varana player was S. Penchev. S. Beggiato turned in a dismal performance, however. Devis's top performer was clearly S. Houdart. On the other hand, W. Neukäufer's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 1.