Coimbra 9 - 0 Sporting (370826805)

Dark skies made the crowd of 15161 at Estádio Universitário a little nervous, but the rain held off. Tomás Aceves was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tomas Jonsson and Gökhan Kibar. Coimbra tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Cabanillas - Rautenberg, Cornaglia, van der Feen - Nikopolidis, Simola, da Silva, Pace, Bozhkov - Lonien, Walter-Offenbach.

Sporting had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players took the field: Carvalha - Carolo, Barrosinho, Melo, Silva Abrantes - Martins Couto, Figueira, Azevedo, Peixoto - Brito, Pires.

It was an obvious ambition of Coimbra to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to H. Lonien, but the Coimbra player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! Coimbra solidified their lead at the 25 minute mark, as A. da Silva dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0. Coimbra's H. Lonien increased the lead to 3 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 27 minutes. After 32 minutes, H. Lonien put Coimbra ahead 4 - 0 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. This third goal completed a hattrick for H. Lonien. Confident in their lead, Coimbra's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Coimbra scored another to make it 5 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for O. Walter-Offenbach after 34 minutes. 5 - 0 was the score after the first half. Coimbra enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 82 percent of possession.

Always a threat, S. Martins Couto tore past his marker and placed the ball right at the feet of the waiting H. Pires who should have easily scored for Sporting, but the ball went wide. A free kick just outside of the visitors' penalty area after 58 minutes could have resulted in another goal, but O. Carvalha got a hand out and tipped the ball over the bar. Coimbra had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. Coimbra put themselves up 6 - 0 when O. Walter-Offenbach broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. The referee showed Sporting's H. Pires the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Coimbra increased the lead as A. da Silva struck to make the score 7 - 0 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. Coimbra's H. Lonien struck his penalty well enough to beat the goalkeeper and extend the home team's lead to 8 - 0 after 80 minutes. Coimbra managed to extend their lead to 9 - 0 when J. Simola cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Possession in this half belonged to Coimbra, who controlled the ball 86 percent of the time.

Coimbra's top performer was clearly A. da Silva. However, F. Cornaglia made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Sporting player was without a doubt G. Barrosinho. O. Carvalha on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 9 - 0.