karpos 0 - 5 SPAL (377573691)

2367 punters turned up at jovica stadium, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Koenraad Putter was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Massimo Folino and Andrea Tibi. karpos tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: Dalipi - Cubalevski, Rajkovski, Xhaja, Krstanoski - Chashlarov, Leov, Gochevski, Kostadinoski - Anastasievski, Bjørnerud.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for SPAL. The following players took the field: Rizzuto - De Gennaro, Campbell, Sanjuán - Kügler, Bittar, Cordero, Boekweg, Olaizola - Dark, Rotondo.

SPAL mostly relied on their long range shooting ability. 25 minutes into the game, karpos seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to solid. The guests took the lead 30 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in A. Sanjuán scoring to make it 0 - 1. Some beautiful play by SPAL set up E. Olaizola in a good shooting position after 31 minutes, but D. Dalipi made a great save on the low hard shot. After 35 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as karpos found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to inadequate. karpos put pressure on the visitors' central defence 37 minutes into the game, but A. Bjørnerud couldn't find an opening. With 40 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed E. Bittar of SPAL to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 2. 0 - 2 was the halftime score. SPAL had most of the ball, with 74 percent of possession.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that karpos had solid organisation. With 49 minutes played, SPAL's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to J. Boekweg he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 0 - 3. After this, you could see that the players of SPAL were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. V. Rotondo left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 60 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. N. Reidl was the replacement. The coach of SPAL was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 60 minutes, D. Weitzer came on for E. Bittar. karpos's counterattacks created a good chance for S. Cubalevski on the right after 64 minutes, but he could only look on with dismay as his strike rebounded off the crossbar. The home crowd was not impressed when M. Dark came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 74 minutes. SPAL were now up 0 - 4. M. Campbell of SPAL was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. I. Gochevski received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 83 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. The SPAL free kick 85 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 N. Reidl, who was completely unmarked in the box. That's 0 - 5! SPAL's J. Cordero was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 86 minutes. Possession in this half belonged to SPAL, who controlled the ball 74 percent of the time.

The most dominating karpos player was without a doubt E. Kostadinoski. A. Xhaja turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important SPAL player was J. Cordero. M. Kügler was a disappointment, however. The match ends 0 - 5.