Necopen 4 - 1 Pepino (367368790)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 24930 at Necopen 400 Arena today. Melle Jager was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Leonard Mederski and Serban Plãticã. Everyone was excited about the upcoming Comunitat Valenciana derby and the crowd was divided evenly. Necopen tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. Lineup: Muralla - Bosque, Samaniego, Jiménez Xixona, Polo - Weissenfels, Serrand, Mayans, Montalvo - Kramsl, Zúñiga Mora.

Pepino decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Gülergül - Gerzson, Velzunza, Vilela - Villacorta, Salazar, Dingemanse, Słoński, Cereixo - Jaramillo, Lo Iacono.

Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Necopen. Down the middle came J. Salazar, making a fantastic play that nearly had Pepino take the lead after 14 minutes, but L. Muralla preserved the tie. G. Lo Iacono came close to putting the visiting team one up 17 minutes into the match, following a solo raid down the middle, but L. Muralla managed to tip the ball to a corner. R. Montalvo knocked one home from a counterattack down the right wing, making the score 1 - 0 after 18 minutes. 26 minutes into the game Pepino's J. Dingemanse found a gap in the home side's central defence and scored with a fabulous shot, making it 1 - 1. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Polo from Necopen a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 28 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Unfortunately for Pepino, A. Vilela was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. E. Lambertz replaced him. G. Lo Iacono was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by S. Velzunza, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. After 36 minutes Pepino's G. Lo Iacono limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. Halftime score was 1 - 1. Possession in this half belonged to Pepino, who controlled the ball 64 percent of the time.

The guests almost went up by a goal after 52 minutes when J. Dingemanse came through and shot from the right. The ball bounced harmlessly off the post, though. 53 minutes into the match Pepino's G. Lo Iacono viciously shoved another player from behind while going for a loose ball and was sent off the pitch with a red card. The Pepino captaincy was handed to E. Lambertz. The player down was G. Serrand. The Necopen bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. Necopen earned themselves a free kick after a counterattack wasn't dealt with adequately by their opponents. A. Zúñiga Mora powered the shot in for 2 - 1. The coach of Necopen was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 65 minutes, E. Rand came on for H. Kramsl. Necopen managed to extend their lead to 3 - 1 when K. Weissenfels cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. The players of Necopen now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. After 81 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and R. Montalvo gave the Necopen supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 1. Pepino had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Most important Necopen player was L. Muralla. K. Weissenfels on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Pepino player was without a doubt R. Słoński. On the other hand, E. Lambertz's play was disheartening. The match ends 4 - 1.