llaavviinniiaa 4 - 0 Minerva (379410616)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 3126 to llaavviinniiaa Arena. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for llaavviinniiaa. Lineup: Mandachi - Câmpeanu, Ivan - Wallbaum, Langella, Poltimäe, Baltă, Arsin - Neculae, Greculescu, Melgarejo.

Minerva tactics involved an interesting 5-4-1 combination. The following players took the field: Ezquerra - Nazaré, Ramos, Machado, Rocha, Ketkum - Haghighi, Drãgan, Vargas, Arredondo - Ferreira Domingos.

llaavviinniiaa seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. It was an obvious ambition of Minerva to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. It was obvious that team llaavviinniiaa had instructions to attack in the middle instead of on the wings. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to R. Greculescu, but the llaavviinniiaa player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 1 - 0! R. Greculescu of llaavviinniiaa received a yellow card after 27 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for llaavviinniiaa, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. S. Baltă should probably have put his team up another goal after 30 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by L. Ezquerra kept the visitors in the game. llaavviinniiaa were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in llaavviinniiaa's V. Neculae increasing the lead to 2 - 0. llaavviinniiaa's L. Poltimäe was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 41 minutes. It was 2 - 0 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to llaavviinniiaa, who controlled the ball 78 percent of the time.

llaavviinniiaa solidified their lead at the 64 minute mark, as S. Baltă dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 3 - 0. 82 minutes into the game, R. Melgarejo had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came M. Davidescu. L. Poltimäe became the new llaavviinniiaa captain. The sunny day didn't make things easy for G. Vargas who didn't seem his usual powerful self on the pitch. 84 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as T. Wallbaum broke through, making the score 4 - 0 for llaavviinniiaa. At this point, it was obvious that the players of llaavviinniiaa lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. A. Arsin of llaavviinniiaa was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. With 88 minutes played, llaavviinniiaa's S. Baltă almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. After 89 minutes, Minerva surprised their opponents with a breakaway counter attack. The defenders had to resort to a foul to stop it. The free kick that followed was a clever indirect effort that almost succeeded, but the defence read the situation well and the intended recipient was left ruing what might have been. The referee showed llaavviinniiaa's G. Câmpeanu the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, M. Ketkum got himself booked. The manager of Minerva was not happy. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by llaavviinniiaa, with 79 percent of the ball.

llaavviinniiaa's top performer was clearly N. Langella. On the other hand, G. Câmpeanu's play was disheartening. Most important Minerva player was A. Ferreira Domingos. However, M. Drãgan made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 0.