GrandeCara 3 - 2 Grande (314875065)

Dark skies made the crowd of 28000 at Stadio de Cara a little nervous, but the rain held off. Virgutis Mandrykinas was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Arnaldo Liberona and Dennis Thöny. The derby had been the talk of Lombardia all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for GrandeCara. The following players had been chosen: Mani - Delin, Benaiges, Brusarosco - Vujasinović, Baleia, Rehsteiner, Ancītis, Călin - Quental, Antonelli.

Grande tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Lineup: Azabache - Bagnato, Montilla Martos, Fiorella - Petričković, Öztarhan, Collet, Struikman - Naslot, Antunes, Calabro.

The wings were the focus of most of GrandeCara's attacks today. Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Grande. 5 minutes in, GrandeCara's A. Quental received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Unfortunately for Grande, A. Montilla Martos was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. M. Corvaja replaced him. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, C. Antunes took over the role of being the Grande captain. GrandeCara took the lead, 1 - 0, after a penalty 7 minutes into the match. S. Benaiges scored from the penalty spot. The visitors' G. Calabro was alert after a cross coming in from the left, levelling the score at 1 - 1 after 19 minutes. After 26 minutes, S. Ancītis came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 2 - 1, giving GrandeCara the lead. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, S. Ancītis got himself booked. The manager of GrandeCara was not happy. It was 2 - 1 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to GrandeCara, who controlled the ball 61 percent of the time.

GrandeCara put in a good effort on the right, but F. Vujasinović saw his volley fly wide of the mark 77 minutes into the game. The GrandeCara players could smell victory in the air. G. Rehsteiner wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for R. Haren after 85 minutes. Grande's M. Corvaja was shown a yellow card after 85 minutes for slicing down an opponent. A. Quental has acquired a talent for predicting the movements of the opposing defence over the years and this almost resulted in a goal 86 minutes into the match. A late sliding challenge from S. Ancītis was deemed to be his second yellow card offence by the referee, resulting in him being sent off, and GrandeCara left a man down. Grande's T. Struikman went down after a savage challenge, but could continue playing after some medical attention. After 89 minutes of play, Grande's J. Petričković unexpectedly struck an inside out ball from no angle at all and R. Naslot slotted it into the net for 2 - 2. K. Öztarhan had a good opportunity to give Grande the lead as he charged down the right and struck the ball towards the top corner, but the home team's goalkeeper made the save. With the scoreboard clock showing 89 minutes, the inexperienced Grande team fell into disarray. GrandeCara took the lead after 89 minutes as a result of S. Benaiges's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 3 - 2. R. Naslot of Grande was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. GrandeCara claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 59 percent.

GrandeCara's best player was A. Quental. E. Mani was a disappointment, however. Grande's top performer was clearly J. Petričković. M. Corvaja turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 2.