Giovinazzo 4 - 1 Torre (380281381)

The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 17000 had shown up at La Cantera for the match. Henk Knödler was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Carlos Delgado and Ermo Okapuu. Giovinazzo started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Frisgaard - Borck, Zvolenszky, Orsós - Marques, Silvennoinen, Christiansen, Osso, Polo - Burzyński, Giovannoni.

A 5-5-0 alignment was the formation of choice for Torre. The following players took the field: Almada - Neagu, Panduri, Kizel, Bendixen, Menichetti - Dłużniewski, Castiglione, De Toffol, Kutat, Klein-Müllersmann -.

Giovinazzo clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. Torre clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Giovinazzo had a good opportunity to take the lead as G. Marques came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of P. Almada. Good work by the Torre defensive line after 7 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found C. Neagu alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. Torre's B. Bendixen was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 8 minutes. Giovinazzo had a chance to take the lead after F. Borck's dazzling drive up the left, but the opportunity fizzled out as his shot went just over the bar after 12 minutes. Coming in from the right, Torre had a good opportunity to convert on a counterattack after 13 minutes, but A. Kizel's attempt to finish was easily stopped. After 16 minutes, J. Osso came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving Giovinazzo the lead. After 20 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and C. Zvolenszky gave the Giovinazzo supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 2 - 0. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Giovinazzo had most of the ball, with 66 percent of possession.

With 55 minutes played, Giovinazzo's M. Christiansen almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. Torre hit back on the counter attack 56 minutes into the game with a free kick. Initially it seemed wasted, hit wide towards the wing. But there was an idea to it - the ball was then crossed towards A. Kizel, who was waiting for it in the box. That's 2 - 1! Don't forget to thank the set pieces coach for that idea! Things were going to get worse for the visitors. C. Zvolenszky squirmed through their central defence after 59 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 1. 65 minutes into the match, A. Giovannoni could have extended the lead, but his powerful free kick went just over the bar. A. Polo wanted to play on, but the Giovinazzo coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 68 minutes into the game by Ş. Ersev. Giovinazzo solidified their lead at the 78 minute mark, as G. Orsós dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 4 - 1. Confident in their lead, Giovinazzo's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. B. Dłużniewski of Torre was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Giovinazzo had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. Possession in this half belonged to Giovinazzo, who controlled the ball 71 percent of the time.

A. Giovannoni performed admirably for Giovinazzo. O. Frisgaard on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Torre player was without a doubt F. Castiglione. However, A. Kizel made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 1.