Athletic 2 - 1 Ebersbach (377573513)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 2405 had shown up at Il Tempio for the match. Ruben Helmus was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Giorgio Baffi and Atro Haltsonen. Athletic tactics involved an interesting 5-4-1 combination. Lineup: Speranti - Folini, Battista, Hystedt, Kasza, Bozzuto - Basile, Poeira, Galluccio, Rottensteiner - Andrisani.

Ebersbach decided to use a 5-4-1 set up. They fielded: Hillerup - Domnichev, Hür, Knittel, Engebakken, Neuenfeld - Brumm, van Loo, Merdzhanov, Rota - Escollar.

For their match strategy, Athletic had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. After 21 minutes, C. Hystedt came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving Athletic the lead. K. Domnichev received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 30 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. Athletic's G. Battista had an excellent opportunity after 31 minutes, shooting after receiving a pass from the right hand side, but he missed the goal by miles! The crowd was silenced 32 minutes into the match as the visiting team's K. Merdzhanov came in from the left, levelling the score to 1 - 1. The referee signaled a penalty for the home side after 34 minutes, amid vocal protests from the visitors. Athletic fans erupted in celebration as D. Rottensteiner rifled the ball into the the top corner. 2 - 1! Halftime score was 2 - 1. Athletic enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

Ebersbach were close to putting the equaliser away after 57 minutes as the opposing defence lost control of the ball to S. Rota in a scuffle towards the left of the goal, but in the end the ball was cleared over the dead ball line. Ebersbach's F. Hür was shown a yellow card after 58 minutes for slicing down an opponent. The home side's D. Rottensteiner came close to extending the lead 71 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but F. Hillerup managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Athletic, with 52 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Athletic player was without a doubt M. Galluccio. R. Poeira turned in a dismal performance, however. L. Escollar performed admirably for Ebersbach. On the other hand, F. Hillerup's play was disheartening. The match ends 2 - 1.