Andorra 1 - 3 Rates (373731813)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 25046 had shown up at Comunal Encamp for the match. Roman Woźnicki was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tuomo Ruuttu and Georges Diemer. Andorra decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Brandenburger - Polla, González Castejón, Haye - Cardedeu, Boada, do Barco, Reuß, Patiño - Escolà, Strömbo.

Rates tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players took the field: Abelleira - Völker, Gilardone, Jacobsen - Walvis, Razhev, Könö, Ortiz el Mozo - Puigbó, Isla, Knutsson.

After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, L. Polla got himself booked. The manager of Andorra was not happy. With 26 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. C. Ortiz el Mozo put the ball away for 0 - 1. After 34 minutes, Rates's J. Isla burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 2. T. Völker got left behind when Andorra's C. Patiño made a sudden run forward after 35 minutes, finishing off with a neat strike. 1 - 2! Andorra's Z. do Barco was shown a yellow card after 36 minutes for slicing down an opponent. The player down was A. Könö. The Rates bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. F. Boada was just a finger's breadth away from an equaliser for Andorra with a strike from the left, but T. Abelleira managed to ward the shot off for a corner. It was 1 - 2 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to Andorra, who controlled the ball 57 percent of the time.

V. Razhev wanted to play on, but the Rates coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 46 minutes into the game by P. Łomulec. D. Jacobsen left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 46 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. R. Kutz was the replacement. The Rates free kick 59 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But was this actually a plan? The ball landed at the feet of J. Puigbó, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 1 - 3! The players of Rates now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. After 72 minutes, Z. do Barco had a good opportunity to reduce the scoreline for Andorra with a chance created through the middle, but wasn't cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. The Rates players could smell victory in the air. J. Walvis wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for M. Forès after 74 minutes. C. Ortiz el Mozo of Rates was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Andorra had most of the ball, with 54 percent of possession.

G. Reuß performed admirably for Andorra. A. Cardedeu was a disappointment, however. Most important Rates player was C. Ortiz el Mozo. However, T. Völker made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 1 - 3.