EKT 3 - 2 Panthers (377666163)

Dark skies made the crowd of 1721 at Cartierul Minunat a little nervous, but the rain held off. Massimo Zucca was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Alois Camerarius and Toni Kakko. EKT started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Titěra - Zalabardo, Topor, Aspè, Wirthner - Di Biase, Drăgoi, Armanca, Iuga, Nuşfelean - Kozelis.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Panthers. The following players took the field: Dumitrescu - Stan, Popescu, Bratu - Beaux, Farkas, Cojenel, Bizzarro, Grevesmühlen - Iancu, Avădanei.

EKT clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Panthers seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 28 minutes into the match left Panthers's N. Popescu completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. D. Armanca missed a penalty after 29 minutes that would have put the teams level. N. Pavlopoulos was called on to replace EKT's J. Wirthner after 32 minutes following a nasty collision. J. Kozelis was handed the EKT captain's armband. 33 minutes into the game, A. Topor had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came I. Bondoc. After 35 minutes of play, J. Kozelis evened things up for EKT with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 1 - 1. EKT took the lead after 37 minutes as a result of A. Di Biase's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 2 - 1. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, A. Stan got himself booked. The manager of Panthers was not happy. 2 - 1 was the halftime score. EKT claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

C. Drăgoi acted foolishly after 53 minutes, giving the ball up to Panthers's I. Iancu who had no trouble finding the back of the net. 2 - 2. A. Bratu would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. D. Bumbescu entered the game for Panthers as the match clock showed 65 minutes. EKT's C. Drăgoi was shown a yellow card after 69 minutes for slicing down an opponent. N. Popescu's knee will be throbbing for days, but thankfully for Panthers, he bravely continued in the match. 76 minutes into the match and the home team took a 3 - 2 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for EKT was F. Zalabardo. With 80 minutes played, the Panthers coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. C. Apostol came on, C. Dumitrescu had to leave the fray. Coming from the right, J. Kozelis almost managed to score another goal for EKT, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. 82 minutes into the match, D. Armanca could have extended the lead, but his powerful free kick went just over the bar. Possession in this half belonged to EKT, who controlled the ball 54 percent of the time.

Most important EKT player was A. Di Biase. However, G. Aspè made a disastrous appearance. A. Beaux performed admirably for Panthers. D. Farkas was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 2.