Merlin 4 - 0 Intimiano (379564884)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 2688 at The Peak today. Timo Pulsa was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Alessio Sabadini and Julien Dubosc. Merlin started off with a 2-5-3 lineup. They fielded: Kijmongkolsak - Willett, Wachiraban - Wongsaksri, Del Curto, Castrigo, Şeuleanu, Benosmane - Salas, Røed, Pellizzaro.

Intimiano had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. The following players took the field: Pirrone - Aloigi, Stramare, Selén - van Aardenne, Velardi, Terrasse, Bonvicino - Santachiara, Fredslund, Pyšný.

Merlin made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in on the right hand side left B. Wachiraban completely alone with keeper O. Pirrone, who made a spectacular block. Slack defending gave Merlin a chance to take the lead with 6 minutes played, but S. Pellizzaro's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. 13 minutes into the match and the home team took a 1 - 0 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Merlin was S. Şeuleanu. Halftime score was 1 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to Merlin, who controlled the ball 64 percent of the time.

With things not going too well on the field, the Intimiano coach made the decision to swap the positions of T. Fredslund and G. Velardi with 46 minutes played. Intimiano needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 46 minutes L. Santachiara made way for E. Mulargiu. Coming through the middle E. Mulargiu almost scored the equaliser for Intimiano after 47 minutes, but M. Kijmongkolsak made an excellent save, tipping the awkwardly curled shot past the post. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Merlin coach let W. Krajangthong replace J. Willett after 50 minutes. As the captain was no longer on the pitch, B. Wachiraban took over the role of being the Merlin captain. Cheers filled the stadium as L. Del Curto broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 2 - 0 to Merlin. Merlin's S. Pellizzaro has the wonderful ability to create chances out of thin air. 60 minutes into the match he bamboozled a couple of opposition defenders before sending the keeper the wrong way and sidefooting the ball home into an empty net. That totally unexpected burst of flair made it 3 - 0. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Merlin's C. Wongsaksri increasing the lead to 4 - 0. After this, you could see that the players of Merlin were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. C. Wongsaksri had a fantastic opportunity to put Merlin up another goal 72 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Merlin, with 64 percent of the ball.

Merlin's best player was R. Røed. C. Wongsaksri was a disappointment, however. Most important Intimiano player was C. Terrasse. O. van Aardenne on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 0.