Paradis 2 - 6 Turtles (380779469)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 50858 at FC Paradis Arena today. Leo Joliot was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Helge Jakobsen and Jean Gilou. Paradis started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Ciutac - Vargha, Lăzăroiu, Treml - Grigore, Mircescu, Matei, Ilie, Bucur - Acasandrei, Bura.

Turtles tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Rada - Malerba, Marcu, Muhammad - Aguiar, Fieraru, Serban, Descall, Ion - Jaquez, Wrąbel.

Turtles's V. Ion managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 12 minutes. 0 - 1. R. Treml was in the clear after breaking the offside trap following a Paradis counterattack from the left after 32 minutes. His neat finish made the score 1 - 1. 34 minutes into the match, the speedy P. Bura easily outpaced I. Marcu, chipped the keeper and made the score 2 - 1. The visitors refused to give in and, after 38 minutes, B. Serban evened things up as he finished off a perfect pass from the right. 2 - 2 Halftime score was 2 - 2. Turtles had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

With 56 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. D. Malerba put the ball away for 2 - 3. In an effort to secure the lead, Turtles changed their tactic after 56 minutes. With 59 minutes played, Turtles's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to W. Wrąbel he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 2 - 4. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from J. Jaquez after 60 minutes, and prevented Turtles from going up another goal. It might be a while before the fans see Paradis's D. Ciutac again, after he had to leave the field in great distress at the 74 minute mark. He was replaced by D. Cohen. The coach of Turtles was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 75 minutes, Ş. Niţă came on for J. Jaquez. After 76 minutes, Turtles's R. Aguiar burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 2 - 5. The Turtles players could smell victory in the air. H. Muhammad wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for V. Stasyuk after 80 minutes. A penalty was awarded after 81 minutes, and V. Ion made the most of his chance to put Turtles up by another goal. 2 - 6 for the visitors. The players of Turtles now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Turtles claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 56 percent.

Paradis's best player was P. Bura. D. Cohen turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important Turtles player was W. Wrąbel. V. Stasyuk was a disappointment, however. The match ends 2 - 6.