CSKA 1 - 3 shu86 (366309524)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 14777 had shown up at Colosseum Arena for the match. Roger Eckstrand was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Luciano Aguiar and Krister Birgersson. CSKA had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. Starters: Lo Giudice - Kloek, Mascitti - Ficotoro, Karlsrud, Leinert, Merdassi, Giovani - Đerković, Spadaro, D'Antimi.

shu86 tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Bogaert - Arteche, Semmler, Condorelli - Miralbell, Ghisalberti, Mini, Gauthey, Hansen - Freitas, Gerits.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of CSKA. F. Đerković caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 4 minutes. This gave CSKA the 1 - 0 lead. A great save by keeper M. Bogaert after 31 minutes kept the visitors in the game after G. Kloek struck from the left with a real cannonball. The referee showed CSKA's I. Giovani the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A. Freitas made a good effort at breaking through on the right, but the home team's left defence cleared the ball to a corner. CSKA had to make a substitution after 41 minutes. A. Spadaro limped off the field and was replaced by E. Canova. It was 1 - 0 at the break. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by CSKA, with 53 percent of the ball.

The home team will be cursing G. Ghisalberti for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem. The match was level at 1 - 1 after 49 minutes. shu86's K. Semmler got himself booked for a foul. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, J. Arteche got himself booked. The manager of shu86 was not happy. 81 minutes had elapsed when a great chance for CSKA to take the lead after a good cross from the right found M. Mascitti alone with the keeper, but he chipped it to the wrong side of the post. shu86 took the lead 85 minutes into the game, making the score 1 - 2 after some elegant movement down the middle. G. Ghisalberti was the scorer. A. Merdassi was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by J. Leinert, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. A. Freitas of shu86 took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 87 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. The players of shu86 now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. I. Giovani remonstrated furiously with the referee after CSKA had another decision go against them. The referee had no alternative but to show him another yellow card and send him from the pitch. shu86 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

Most important CSKA player was F. Đerković. J. Karlsrud turned in a dismal performance, however. shu86's top performer was clearly A. Freitas. However, B. Hansen made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 3.