F.C.Grozavesti 3 - 3 Wampen (379116030)

2399 fans braved the pouring rain at Lucky Bowl. Martin Winiger was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Stefano De Marco and Hugo Amiot. F.C.Grozavesti started off with a 5-3-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Teodorescu - Tomşa, Ese, Coufal, Topor, Columbeanu - Mygind, Chiabra, Agramunt - Wydenbosch, Thuesen Dahl.

Wampen tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. They fielded: Danzas - Galiza, Durcan, Tänzler - Plummer, Breibert, Friedrichshall, Icharia - Windisch, Holdt, Stoffl.

F.C.Grozavesti clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. Wampen took the lead 8 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. C. Windisch was the scorer. A. Coufal's lack of experience almost gave Wampen a goal after 17 minutes, but the shot went right into the keeper's arms. Good work by the Wampen defensive line after 24 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found Y. Friedrichshall alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. Some fine movement on the left led to a Wampen goal after 28 minutes, making it 0 - 2. M. Tänzler was noted down as the scorer. M. Icharia was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. A quick free kick deep in the opponent's half found D. Wydenbosch, who produced a brilliant first touch to send it flying beyond the keeper into the net. This reduced the away team's lead to 1 - 2. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 2. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by F.C.Grozavesti, with 64 percent of the ball.

After 54 minutes of play, R. Columbeanu evened things up for F.C.Grozavesti with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 2 - 2. The referee showed F.C.Grozavesti's C. Topor the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. In a fantastic display of determination, Wampen's Y. Friedrichshall forced himself to his feet, after an opponent viciously knocked him down. D. Holdt was having a great game - if anything the pouring rain seemed to be spurring him on! M. Tänzler knocked one home from a counterattack down the right wing, making the score 2 - 3 after 64 minutes. R. Columbeanu charged down the left and had a wonderful opportunity to score the equaliser for F.C.Grozavesti, but the shot went well wide of the goal. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for F.C.Grozavesti, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. After 72 minutes, E. Mygind made a dash down the middle past the away team's defenders to score the goal that made it 3 - 3. Many thought S. Thuesen Dahl ought to have been awarded a penalty 81 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around D. Danzas after a determined run through the middle. After 82 minutes, the defensive line of Wampen created a counterattack through the middle that gave C. Windisch a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. F.C.Grozavesti's M. Tomşa was shown a yellow card after 83 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Due to a severely mistimed tackle, M. Tänzler of Wampen spent some time on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. F.C.Grozavesti claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 65 percent.

F.C.Grozavesti's top performer was clearly S. Thuesen Dahl. On the other hand, N. Teodorescu's play was disheartening. Wampen's best player was F. Stoffl. However, D. Danzas made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 3.