rapid3 5 - 1 rapid (365288455)

Dark skies made the crowd of 35914 at fc rapid3 Arena a little nervous, but the rain held off. Burhan Al-Saleh was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Christian Mazzacane and Ned Cahill. rapid3 tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Sippa - Hofer, Jensen, See - Tabagari, Visser, Dalbon, Alcázar Yunta, Östström - Corbo, van Ettekoven.

rapid decided to use a 3-4-3 set up. The following players had been chosen: Pollex - Draffehn, Segato, Bożko - Moraglia, Christino, Behringer, Wysielski - Florean, Sondors, Cino.

After some beautiful movement down the left wing, R. Corbo scored for rapid3 putting them ahead 1 - 0, after 7 minutes. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. R. Visser squirmed through their central defence after 11 minutes, increasing the lead to 2 - 0. The home side's K. Jensen curled a free kick home after 23 minutes, putting rapid3 ahead 3 - 0. Confident in their lead, rapid3's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. rapid3 solidified their lead at the 27 minute mark, as P. Alcázar Yunta dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 4 - 0. The teams went for the halftime break at 4 - 0. rapid3 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 66 percent.

N. Florean nearly reduced the lead 55 minutes into the game, but a splendid one-handed save by S. Sippa prevented the attempt coming in from the right flank from hitting the back of the net. rapid3's L. van Ettekoven was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 68 minutes. With 70 minutes played, rapid3 put themselves up 5 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to F. Dalbon, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. N. Florean's speed is always a threat when he gets a little room to move, and 85 minutes into the match was no different as he broke free of his man to send a delightful through ball to A. Cino who knocked it in for rapid. 5 - 1! Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by rapid3, with 66 percent of the ball.

Most important rapid3 player was L. van Ettekoven. B. Östström turned in a dismal performance, however. rapid's best player was N. Florean. M. Wysielski was a disappointment, however. The match ends 5 - 1.