Madruga 1 - 8 Sagacidade (380455994)

12000 punters turned up at Real Madruga, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Ola Svensson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Giovanni Pietrangiolillo and Gintukas Trumpuliauskas. Madruga tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. Starters: Borracha - Nosaka, Jamaica, Gaivota, Serpa Costa - Santos, Marconatto, Gamboa, Guadalupe - Silveirinha, Tsukehara.

A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Sagacidade. The following players had been chosen: Diniz Veiga - Braga, Nepomuceno - Kalniņš, Mastropasqua, Maidl, Bondarenko, Binka - Đồng Mãn, Matos, Presali.

Sagacidade seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. F. Guadalupe's speed was clear to see after 13 minutes, as he darted down the wing and released T. Tsukehara who placed the ball into the back of the net to make the score 1 - 0. N. Đồng Mãn finished off a quick charge from the left of the field by chipping the ball just past the home side's keeper, making the score 1 - 1 20 minutes into the match. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Sagacidade, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. After 21 minutes, Sagacidade's J. Binka made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 1 - 2. 24 minutes into the game, Sagacidade were awarded a penalty and I. Nepomuceno was able to increase the visitors' lead to 1 - 3 rolling the ball in by the right post. The referee signalled a penalty 26 minutes into the game following an offence which looked like it was outside the box. I. Nepomuceno knocked it home to make the score 1 - 4. 29 minutes into the game a free kick by I. Nepomuceno found its way through the home side's poorly assembled defensive formation, making Sagacidade's lead 1 - 5. This third goal completed a hattrick for I. Nepomuceno. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Sagacidade lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Madruga's R. Marconatto was shown a yellow card after 32 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 1 - 5 was the halftime score. Sagacidade claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 75 percent.

The visitors' D. Matos took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 56 minutes into the match. 1 - 6 for Sagacidade. After 63 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for J. Kalniņš who increased Sagacidade's lead to 1 - 7. 66 minutes in, Madruga's A. Santos received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. After 74 minutes, Sagacidade's O. Maidl burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 1 - 8. D. Matos came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over E. Borracha but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. Sagacidade had most of the ball, with 76 percent of possession.

Madruga's top performer was clearly M. Serpa Costa. E. Borracha on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Sagacidade player was without a doubt D. Matos. I. Bondarenko was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 8.