Xanthic 5 - 0 Nan-tou (380508702)

The crowd of 25105 turning up at Taipei Dome today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Soriano Agüera was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Hasan Kaya and Rafael do Nascimento. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Xanthic. They fielded: Cortelazzo - Forstmeier, Bernot, 達華 (Dahua) - Lepore, 世凡 (Shifan), Carotti, Retyunskiy, Kaprolat - Aleksić, 效寶 (Xiaobao).

Nan-tou started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Yung-Hua - Joong, Myung-Suk, Huai-Yi, Vinh-Thien - Poh-Chung, Hoi-Sang, Long, Cheng-An - Huyquang, Quang-Han.

The wings were the focus of most of Xanthic's attacks today. This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when G. Huyquang slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against G. Cortelazzo, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. Xanthic took the lead after 21 minutes as a result of 薛. 效寶 (Xiaobao)'s peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 1 - 0. 薛. 效寶 (Xiaobao) had a hard time on the waterlogged pitch - his trademark technique was nowhere in sight today. 39 minutes in, Xanthic's F. Forstmeier received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. S. Yung-Hua's knee will be throbbing for days, but thankfully for Nan-tou, he bravely continued in the match. K. Retyunskiy could have put Xanthic up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 42 minutes. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 0. Xanthic had most of the ball, with 63 percent of possession.

G. Vinh-Thien did not have a good day today, often losing his footing on the muddy pitch. After 52 minutes, K. Retyunskiy put Xanthic ahead 2 - 0 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. The players of Xanthic now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Xanthic scored another to make it 3 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for 薛. 效寶 (Xiaobao) after 62 minutes. Xanthic managed to extend their lead to 4 - 0 when U. Carotti cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Xanthic's defence sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counterattack with 82 minutes gone, but R. Kaprolat's finish was met by the reaching hands of the keeper. The score became 5 - 0 at 85 minutes into the game, when Xanthic were given a penalty which V. Aleksić blasted straight down the middle giving the keeper no chance! Xanthic enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 64 percent of possession.

Most important Xanthic player was R. Kaprolat. However, A. Bernot made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Nan-tou player was without a doubt W. Poh-Chung. On the other hand, S. Yung-Hua's play was disheartening. The match ends 5 - 0.