CRAIOVA 1 - 0 Star (379524021)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 1306 to GRAND ARENA. Thomas Hedhult was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Albert Coburn and Krzysiek Palarczyk. CRAIOVA started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Navarre - Pandelescu, Emiliani, Montanari, Costa - Put, Vlad, Trapani, Kais - Izsák, Grigore.

Star decided to use a 5-3-2 set up. Starters: Ribau - Melitz, Dormann, Žilić, Rüdiger, Bozec - Scotney, Dupuis, Ion - Tepe, Angheloni.

The wings were the focus of most of Star's attacks today. Some great play up the middle by CRAIOVA led to a chance for A. Trapani to score after 7 minutes, but the shot hit the crossbar. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, S. Scotney got himself booked. The manager of Star was not happy. Star's Y. Bozec refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon after 34 minutes. With 36 minutes played, F. Pandelescu of CRAIOVA fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. With 37 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, A. Emiliani needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. P. Zaychuk was called on to replace CRAIOVA's E. Montanari after 39 minutes following a nasty collision. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 0. CRAIOVA claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

After 46 minutes, the Star coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving C. Angheloni off the field. E. Lomotă took his place. E. Lomotă was the new captain of Star - handed the armband by the departing player. CRAIOVA could have put themselves ahead after 49 minutes but J. Kais missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. As the 70 minute mark approached, the Star coach decided it was time for a substitution. D. Rüdiger reluctantly made way for F. Carré on the pitch. CRAIOVA took the lead 75 minutes in, as P. Vlad broke through on the left and put the 1 - 0 shot just beyond the reach of the outstretched keeper. The referee showed Star's F. Dupuis the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. CRAIOVA had most of the ball, with 52 percent of possession.

The most dominating CRAIOVA player was without a doubt F. Pandelescu. However, W. Put made a disastrous appearance. Most important Star player was F. Dupuis. On the other hand, J. Ribau's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 0.