Rapid 1 - 2 Purple (365237043)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 70767 had shown up at Giulesti for the match. Rapid started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Ilie - Mihalache, Botoş, Sánchez - Rinaldo, Dumitrescu, Conde, Morega, Cannavaro - Chalmers, Dollmantis.

Purple decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Nicolae - Carp, Rusu, Seceanu - Mitache, Tămaş, Toma, Tolontan, Grigore - Vanghelie, Staicu.

5 minutes into the game, P. Vanghelie almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Rapid's F. Sánchez had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 6 minutes having been played. G. Dascălu was the replacement. I. Chalmers caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 25 minutes. This gave Rapid the 1 - 0 lead. Rapid's D. Morega saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 33 minutes. As R. Dollmantis had, completely unprovoked, swept the legs out from under an opponent in front of a linesman, the referee gave the Rapid player a red card without batting an eyelid. A. Mitache was first to reach a ball launched long through the center from Purple's defence 38 minutes into the game. He managed to keep his cool and beat the goalkeeper to make the score 1 - 1. 1 - 1 was the score after the first half. Rapid claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when P. Vanghelie was unable to put the ball in the net after his show of skill down the left 59 minutes into the match. He was seen beating the pitch in frustration at missing such a good chance to give his team the lead! The guests took the lead 68 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in I. Seceanu scoring to make it 1 - 2. Purple had most of the ball, with 51 percent of possession.

D. Morega performed admirably for Rapid. However, C. Cannavaro made a disastrous appearance. Purple's top performer was clearly D. Tămaş. O. Nicolae on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 2.