zebiekstes 4 - 0 Pūpoli (381505799)

The crowd of 53937 turning up at arēna, kur sit un kož today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Paolo Perucci was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tulio Álvarez and Antti Österholm. zebiekstes tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. Lineup: Lapi - Bruzītis, Zhitnik, Veļiņš, Brechek - Čirksis, Blušs, Koveshnikov, Cheran - Novadnieks, Dolgopolov.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Pūpoli. They fielded: Rivero - Hartwig, Kokorev, Juusti - Zīverts, Quirino, Bustamante, Smorodov, Roze - Hornsteiner, Martin.

Pūpoli had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 11 minutes in when P. Hornsteiner came up alone against V. Lapi who managed a block. The boggy pitch disrupted the game, especially for technical players like A. Juusti. After 15 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. J. Blušs easily put the ball away to give the lead to zebiekstes. 1 - 0 With 40 minutes played, zebiekstes put themselves up 2 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to V. Novadnieks, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. At this point, it was obvious that the players of zebiekstes lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. E. Dolgopolov should probably have put his team up another goal after 42 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by M. Rivero kept the visitors in the game. The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 0. zebiekstes enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 55 percent of possession.

The Pūpoli coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. Coming from the right, E. Bruzītis almost managed to score another goal for zebiekstes, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. V. Koveshnikov wanted to play on, but the zebiekstes coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 68 minutes into the game by T. Jocis. Thighs bulging, J. Quirino charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. Things were deteriorating for the away team as zebiekstes scored another to make it 3 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for S. Cheran after 82 minutes. 83 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as J. Brechek broke through, making the score 4 - 0 for zebiekstes. Possession in this half belonged to zebiekstes, who controlled the ball 59 percent of the time.

zebiekstes's best player was V. Novadnieks. On the other hand, J. Brechek's play was disheartening. E. Zīverts performed admirably for Pūpoli. However, M. Rivero made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 0.