City`Us 6 - 0 STEAUA (380857213)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 16747 to Ghencea din Mures. Pietro Jauslin was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Grégoire Mumiah and Otto Salo. City`Us tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. They fielded: Ciufu - Hinteregger, Molins, Escaleira - Palolahti, Olteanu, Damas, Graur - Schoch, Kanki, Popa.

STEAUA decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players took the field: Maese - Pellejero, Ackermann, Kohli - Santos, Aarhus, Giacon, Viarani, Packheiser - Demmers, Bassini.

City`Us were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. STEAUA were relying on their ability to counter-attack. The corner kick from M. Palolahti was powerfully met by the head of T. Kanki to make the score 1 - 0. E. Escaleira behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 19 minutes as he gave the ball away to K. Demmers. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. With 24 minutes played, City`Us's M. Graur almost extended the lead, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. In a rapid move 25 minutes into the match, T. Popa of City`Us lost his man and passed the ball to the unmarked S. Schoch who easily hit it home to make it 2 - 0. Luckily the ref didn't see him taunting the opposing fans in celebration - naughty boy! City`Us put themselves up 3 - 0 when T. Kanki broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. 3 - 0 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by City`Us, with 54 percent of the ball.

The City`Us players could smell victory in the air. S. Schoch wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for L. Pârlea after 46 minutes. T. Kanki wanted to play on, but the City`Us coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 46 minutes into the game by A. Riţă. The coach of City`Us was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 46 minutes, A. Ghiţă came on for T. Popa. City`Us were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. City`Us managed to extend their lead to 4 - 0 when M. Palolahti cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. By now, the players in City`Us felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. With 59 minutes of the game having been played, A. Ghiţă received a blow to the hip in a collision and was unable to continue. City`Us, with no available replacements, now faced the prospect of finishing the game with a reduced number of players. I. Aarhus got left behind when City`Us's M. Palolahti made a sudden run forward after 75 minutes, finishing off with a neat strike. 5 - 0! 81 minutes into the game, STEAUA's attack got through on the right, but D. Bassini couldn't handle the ball and his feeble kick wound up in the keeper's arms. City`Us's M. Palolahti struck his penalty well enough to beat the goalkeeper and extend the home team's lead to 6 - 0 after 87 minutes. That made three goals for M. Palolahti and he was marked down for the hat trick. Neither team was controlling the possession at this point in the match, with the stats showing a 50:50 split.

E. Escaleira performed admirably for City`Us. C. Olteanu turned in a dismal performance, however. The most dominating STEAUA player was without a doubt D. Bassini. G. Giacon was a disappointment, however. The match ends 6 - 0.