Spartak 6 - 0 Sporting (374823692)

Dark skies made the crowd of 12150 at Luzhniki a little nervous, but the rain held off. Jaroslav Štangl was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Sothy Duong and Gjallim Puka. Spartak decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players took the field: van Gunst - de Hoon, Gelling, van Saksen - Huang, Jensen, Dwars, Vatne, Stoutjesdijk - Hovenkamp, De Grauwe.

Sporting had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: van Westerloo - van Holland, Linderhof, Bekar, Dil - van Doorn, Calame, Danhof, de Ruijter - Westerhoff, van Vleuten.

With 5 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, G. Jensen needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to T. Hovenkamp, but the Spartak player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! After 33 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and G. Gelling gave the Spartak supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 2 - 0. With 34 minutes played, G. Stoutjesdijk could have brought this one home for Spartak as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. 2 - 0 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Spartak, with 76 percent of the ball.

Spartak increased the lead as T. Hovenkamp struck to make the score 3 - 0 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Spartak to 4 - 0 as F. van Saksen finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. By now, the players in Spartak felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. Cheers filled the stadium as T. de Hoon broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 5 - 0 to Spartak. Spartak's G. Jensen had an excellent opportunity after 73 minutes, shooting after receiving a pass from the right hand side, but he missed the goal by miles! 75 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as H. Huang broke through, making the score 6 - 0 for Spartak. Spartak had most of the ball, with 76 percent of possession.

Most important Spartak player was T. Hovenkamp. However, U. van Gunst made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Sporting player was without a doubt V. van Vleuten. On the other hand, M. Bekar's play was disheartening. The match ends 6 - 0.