Chindia 1 - 7 Panterele (379218529)

Clouds darkened the skies at Micro4 Arena as 1266 spectators turned up for the match. Alan Kruneš was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Izidor Perak and Fredrik Pettersson. Chindia had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Starters: Siwczyk - Tobescu, von Allmen, Zaldibar, Băcanu - Popa, Venczel, Poptile, Vârtej - Aitonean, Mozoran.

A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Panterele. Lineup: Manole - Negulescu, Castellan - Aalberts, Vasile, Bolea, Mittermann, Domokos - Balčiauskas, Nitoi, Rosenthal.

Chindia were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Today, Panterele's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Panterele's P. Mittermann after 24 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. 28 minutes in, Panterele's P. Mittermann received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Just a few inches to the right, and the visitors could have had a goal 31 minutes into the match. M. Nitoi surely wishes he could do that free kick over again. Chindia were great at switching from defence to attack, and after 32 minutes, R. Venczel swept through the middle on a counterattack, making the score 1 - 1. Panterele's goal to make the score 1 - 2 came via a questionable penalty, but M. Nitoi struck it home without a second thought. Had it not been for one of the home defenders, C. Negulescu would have put Panterele up another goal 43 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 2. Panterele claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 78 percent.

C. Negulescu 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. G. Romoli was the replacement. As the game started to slip away for Chindia, the manager decided to change the tactical approach. M. Bolea of Panterele took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 63 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. The referee signalled a penalty 65 minutes into the game following an offence which looked like it was outside the box. M. Nitoi knocked it home to make the score 1 - 4. The players of Panterele now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. M. Aalberts earned a rousing chorus of cheers from his fans as he seemed to come out of nowhere after 67 minutes to intercept the ball and put it in the back of the net for Panterele. 1 - 5. A drive down the left side allowed M. Vasile to get in close and score another goal for Panterele after 69 minutes, taking the score to 1 - 6. Some fine movement on the left led to a Panterele goal after 75 minutes, making it 1 - 7. A. Rosenthal was noted down as the scorer. Possession in this half belonged to Panterele, who controlled the ball 80 percent of the time.

F. Siwczyk performed admirably for Chindia. On the other hand, L. Băcanu's play was disheartening. The most dominating Panterele player was without a doubt M. Nitoi. D. Manole on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 7.