Alcainça 4 - 3 PALMINHA (370731225)

Dark skies made the crowd of 29674 at Campo João Simões a little nervous, but the rain held off. Mikhail Gaenko was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jean-Luc Dietsch and John Remus. Alcainça tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. They fielded: Maas - Pinzón, Dany, Canaydın - Cikursch, Muggli, Rada, Borgato - Bushmanov, Cartaxo, Iliucci.

PALMINHA started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Iordan - Cardeira, Gadelha, Marchante - Marchel, Mleczek, Poccis, Menegatti, Grund - Bratsberg, Barbarà.

Alcainça clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. It was an obvious ambition of PALMINHA to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. C. Iliucci caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 13 minutes. This gave Alcainça the 1 - 0 lead. After 26 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by W. Rada might have resulted in another goal for Alcainça. However, P. Iordan made a spectacular save. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Alcainça to 2 - 0 as V. Bushmanov finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. With 36 minutes played, Alcainça put themselves up 3 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to W. Rada, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. By now, the players in Alcainça felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. It was 3 - 0 at the break. Alcainça claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 57 percent.

A well placed corner kick from A. Mleczek was followed by A. Menegatti's hard but accurate header. The well executed routine resulted in a goal for PALMINHA, the score now 3 - 1. PALMINHA reduced the lead after 67 minutes to 3 - 2 as J. Barbarà easily chipped the ball past the home side's keeper after a dazzling play from the right. The home side's S. Canaydın came close to extending the lead 68 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but P. Iordan managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. G. Borgato wanted to play on, but the Alcainça coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 70 minutes into the game by C. Monte. The home team will be cursing L. Marchante for weeks; he finished off a great pass from the left, knocking it past the keeper without a problem. The match was level at 3 - 3 after 72 minutes. Making his way up the middle 73 minutes into the match, H. Muggli almost managed to squeeze a goal past the visitors' keeper, but the alert P. Iordan blocked it to keep the score level. Alcainça took the lead 74 minutes into the match after a magnificent free kick by H. Muggli that made the score 4 - 3. M. Pinzón left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 75 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. R. Prados was the replacement. Alcainça enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

Alcainça's best player was M. Dany. On the other hand, M. Maas's play was disheartening. L. Marchante performed admirably for PALMINHA. P. Iordan on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 3.