Gurbanesti 2 - 0 Timisoara (365237666)

It had rained all day, but 36034 hardy fans still made it out to Terenul din Livada. Nand Verhage was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Edmund Łopatecki and Martin Resch. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Gurbanesti. The following players took the field: Nedelcu - Bucşa, Gheorghe, Warguła - Dincă, Stângă, Dinu, Dorneanu, Liiceanu - Udrea, Dragomir.

Timisoara tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Garrido Hervás - Bărbulescu, Vázquez, Ojog - Quintana, Marinov, Kardos, Ristea, Dănescu - Kotara, Weißke.

Thighs bulging, V. Vázquez charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. A. Dănescu came close to putting the visiting team one up 22 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but D. Nedelcu managed to tip the ball to a corner. It was 0 - 0 at the break. Gurbanesti claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

60 minutes into the game, Gurbanesti wanted to bring some new energy to their game. I. Udrea gave G. Davidkov a quick hug as he left the field. A. Dănescu spent most of the time in a heap on the ground today, his normally rapid movement hindered by the slippery pitch. 66 minutes into the game, B. Weißke was a hair's breadth away from giving Timisoara the lead with a shot from over on the left. A prompt block by D. Nedelcu saved the home team that time. B. Dragomir caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 77 minutes. This gave Gurbanesti the 1 - 0 lead. As the game started to slip away for Timisoara, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. D. Kotara was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. 82 minutes into the match Timisoara's D. Quintana viciously shoved another player from behind while going for a loose ball and was sent off the pitch with a red card. G. Dorneanu's knee will be throbbing for days, but thankfully for Gurbanesti, he bravely continued in the match. Gurbanesti's B. Dragomir saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 86 minutes. S. Stângă increased the lead for Gurbanesti to 2 - 0, getting a head onto a hooked ball from the right. The ball looked to have taken a deflection on the way in, but he's claiming it! Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Gurbanesti, with 53 percent of the ball.

Gurbanesti's best player was T. Dincă. R. Warguła was a disappointment, however. Timisoara's top performer was clearly B. Weißke. T. Kardos turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 0.