Valentia 2 - 2 GIULESTI (365277534)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 42753 at Valentia Arena today. Beat Manco was the appointed referee. The derby had been the talk of Bucureşti all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. Valentia decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players took the field: Van Deuren - Xerez, Ribas, Dumitru - Wuelfert, Duţu, Rajczi, Pădureanu, Mosig - Aškrabić, Forsbom.

GIULESTI started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Campo - Volodinas, Vajc, Klajn - Zinicola, Racca, Breisig, Todorovski, Bustos Gisbert - Liberona, MacAuliffe.

Valentia tried to focus their attacks down the middle. GIULESTI decided to play creatively. GIULESTI's D. MacAuliffe gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead after 5 minutes with a superb strike from the right. The home crowd cheered when, after 8 minutes, J. Liberona's charge up the middle resulted in the keeper making one of his best saves of the day. 18 minutes in, Valentia's A. Forsbom received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Valentia's A. Mosig almost tied things up with 29 minutes played after breaking through on the right, but his shot deflected off the post. 30 minutes into the game, J. Aškrabić came close to levelling the score with a dangerous shot from the centre of the area that went just over the bar. J. Ribas rose like a salmon, and was very close to scoring with a header after a corner, but sent the ball just over the bar. 38 minutes into the game, GIULESTI worked the left side industriously creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but just couldn't apply the finishing touch. 0 - 1 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Valentia, with 56 percent of the ball.

Valentia tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. Valentia's G. Dumitru was shown a yellow card after 69 minutes for slicing down an opponent. J. Aškrabić showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 70 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. The corner kick from J. Liberona was powerfully met by the head of C. Bustos Gisbert to make the score 1 - 2. It might be a while before the fans see GIULESTI's J. Liberona again, after he had to leave the field in great distress at the 74 minute mark. He was replaced by F. Liszka. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Valentia, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Some fine passing in the middle of the pitch, carving open the away defence, should have led to a goal for Valentia, but J. Aškrabić's shot went over the bar. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Mosig from Valentia a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 80 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! 82 minutes in, and Valentia were able to score the equalising goal to make it 2 - 2 when G. Dumitru picked up a pass coming in from the right and chipped it past the away team's keeper. Possession in this half belonged to Valentia, who controlled the ball 57 percent of the time.

Valentia's best player was B. Wuelfert. On the other hand, A. Forsbom's play was disheartening. D. MacAuliffe performed admirably for GIULESTI. S. Zinicola was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 2.