Lyons 1 - 5 E.ON (380924349)

Due to an all-day shower, 3794 paying spectators got to see a match on a pitch-turned-bog at Blue Arena. Noam Sentenac was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Fabrizio Zebedeo and Charles MacClure. Lyons tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Yetiş - Cruceru, Pisică, Zigdon, Dumitrescu - Mitraşcă, Tudorache, Hâruţa, Cirap - Papuc, Imireanu.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for E.ON. Lineup: Młodzik - Frăţilă, Öncel, Tabără, Verschelden - Simon, Tolli, Iwaniec, Cots - Zikas, Filera.

Lyons showed off their creative tactics. G. Mitraşcă didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. E.ON's F. Cots managed to lose the defenders as he advanced down the right wing and scored, putting the visitors ahead after 25 minutes. 0 - 1. Lyons's M. Pisică put his head to a high ball coming in from the right after 27 minutes, but the ball went wide. The home crowd was not impressed when T. Simon came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 28 minutes. E.ON were now up 0 - 2. G. Mitraşcă's early cross saw the defenders caught out of position and the alert A. Papuc was able to pounce and roll the ball past the hapless goalkeeper to score for Lyons. 1 - 2. P. Zikas of E.ON took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 35 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. 1 - 3 was the score after the first half. E.ON enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

E.ON increased their lead after 49 minutes when A. Iwaniec broke through on the right, upping the score to 1 - 4, much to the home crowd's dismay. The bench was restless, and with 50 minutes passed Lyons's coach gave L. Bănescu the opportunity the player had been hoping for. M. Pisică reluctantly left the field. A scuffle developed as players from both sides clashed following a tussle in the centre of the field 60 minutes into the match. After regaining order and consulting his linesman, the referee called E.ON's U. Tolli to one side and produced a red card for the player. After 83 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed G. Filera to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 1 - 5. After this, you could see that the players of E.ON were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. V. Öncel, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass. With the scoreboard showing that 86 minutes had been played, E.ON nearly put themselves up another goal after C. Tabără came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. Possession in this half belonged to E.ON, who controlled the ball 52 percent of the time.

Most important Lyons player was G. Mitraşcă. U. Zigdon was a disappointment, however. E.ON's top performer was clearly P. Zikas. On the other hand, S. Młodzik's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 5.