zala7 3 - 5 SPAL (377252466)

470 spectators arrived at Ta7reer Arena, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Jani Bono was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Domonkos Mészáros and Martial Cognet. zala7 had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players took the field: Liptay - Jizi, Issa, Khoury - Al-Abdel, Sing, Rashid, Mantsur, Tamstani - El-Akil, Akbarya.

SPAL started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Rizzuto - De Gennaro, Campbell, Sanjuán - Kügler, Bittar, Cordero, Boekweg, Olaizola - Dark, Rotondo.

zala7 showed off their creative tactics. Going for long shots seemed to be the strategy in use by SPAL. K. Liptay looked great 11 minutes into the match after stopping a shot from the middle of the penalty area from the visitors' A. Sanjuán. 14 minutes into the game, P. De Gennaro almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. After some beautiful movement down the left wing, A. Akbarya scored for zala7 putting them ahead 1 - 0, after 18 minutes. Some brilliant football from the visitors' right wing resulted in a levelling of the score as SPAL's P. De Gennaro put the ball in the onion bag after 31 minutes to make it 1 - 1. S. Al-Abdel's early cross saw the defenders caught out of position and the alert M. El-Akil was able to pounce and roll the ball past the hapless goalkeeper to score for zala7. 2 - 1. It was 2 - 1 at the break. SPAL had most of the ball, with 60 percent of possession.

After 55 minutes of play, zala7's O. Khoury unexpectedly struck an inside out ball from no angle at all and M. El-Akil slotted it into the net for 3 - 1. With 56 minutes showing on the scoreboard clock, SPAL showed some good skill and were able to reduce the score to 3 - 2 when V. Rotondo got past the home side's central defenders right in front of the goal. J. Cordero finished off a quick charge from the left of the field by chipping the ball just past the home side's keeper, making the score 3 - 3 57 minutes into the match. E. Bittar would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. D. Weitzer entered the game for SPAL as the match clock showed 60 minutes. With 61 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. E. Olaizola put the ball away for 3 - 4. Some fine movement on the left led to a SPAL goal after 66 minutes, making it 3 - 5. M. Kügler was noted down as the scorer. It was obvious that the tactic of the day for SPAL was to go for long shots, but in order to score they have to do better than the shooting attempt from D. Weitzer after 67 minutes, which was a total failure. V. Rotondo left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 70 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. N. Reidl was the replacement. SPAL enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 67 percent of possession.

A. Akbarya performed admirably for zala7. K. Liptay was a disappointment, however. Most important SPAL player was J. Cordero. On the other hand, M. Kügler's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 5.