Steaua 1 - 3 l7 (380827309)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 21378 at F.C. Steaua 1947 Arena today. Koit Luts was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Christof Mahiels and Ulf Orenmar. Steaua tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Molek - Selflod, Johannessen, Ottmüller - Cantoni, Lazãr, Button, Spijkers - Folini, Rodríguez, Iturrarán.

l7 had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Florea - Delgado, Räikkönen, Bretoni - Kharaishvili, Brousset, Redolad, Schoener, Sträuli - Kankaanpää, Avram.

The guests took the lead 6 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in L. Avram scoring to make it 0 - 1. With the scoreboard showing that 22 minutes had been played, l7 nearly put themselves up another goal after I. Redolad came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. R. Iturrarán was the first to reach the corner kick, but his header was blocked by the keeper. However, Steaua's J. Button managed to get hold of the rebound and tucked the ball into the empty net. 1 - 1 This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when V. Brousset slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against S. Molek, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. l7's M. Bretoni could have put the guests one up after 30 minutes after chasing a through ball from the right, but S. Molek was as fast as a snake, grabbing the ball from under his nose. It was 1 - 1 at the break. l7 claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

With 66 minutes played, the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending. V. Räikkönen put the ball away for 1 - 2. l7's V. Räikkönen got himself booked for a foul. V. Brousset received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 74 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 1 - 3. The l7 fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. At this point, it was obvious that the players of l7 lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. With 79 minutes gone, l7 had a free kick in a decent position. Despite this being a great chance for a shot, they tried a cheeky move intended to bypass the defence. However, B. Kharaishvili did not manage to connect with it cleanly and the ball went out. l7 enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 59 percent of possession.

E. Folini performed admirably for Steaua. J. Spijkers turned in a dismal performance, however. l7's best player was V. Kankaanpää. On the other hand, B. Kharaishvili's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 3.