Pierikos-Archelaos 3 - 0 TORONTO (381296584)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 46569 at Katerini Arena today. Jungo Yosano was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Per-Erik Kvalvik and Håkan Säflius. Pierikos-Archelaos had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. Lineup: Gluić - Kuršs, Tortora - Rehsprung, Sanchez, Halle, Jansiņš, Durasas - Koomen, Torres, Eggenberger.

TORONTO tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. They fielded: Zabalburu - Soares, Hintsa, Alemán, Branchi - Ratzeburger, Rogeiro, Vibero, Verlee, Luisi - Reismann.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of TORONTO. M. Durasas caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 5 minutes. This gave Pierikos-Archelaos the 1 - 0 lead. K. Jansiņš should probably have put his team up another goal after 18 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by I. Zabalburu kept the visitors in the game. V. Halle had a fantastic opportunity to put Pierikos-Archelaos up another goal 19 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. With 20 minutes gone, a long pass from the defence of TORONTO resulted in a counterattack that set R. Vibero free through the middle, but the keeper made a spectacular diving save. 1 - 0 was the halftime score. Pierikos-Archelaos had most of the ball, with 52 percent of possession.

Pierikos-Archelaos solidified their lead at the 51 minute mark, as J. Torres dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0. Coming from the right, H. Eggenberger almost managed to score another goal for Pierikos-Archelaos, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. TORONTO came close to narrowing the gap when C. Ratzeburger's free kick nearly made it past the outstretched hands of B. Gluić after 82 minutes. Pierikos-Archelaos's L. Rehsprung was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the opposition's box - J. Torres managed to volley one of them into the net to make it 3 - 0 after 83 minutes. After this, you could see that the players of Pierikos-Archelaos were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. 86 minutes in, Pierikos-Archelaos's V. Halle received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. TORONTO breathed new life into the game with an opportunity to reduce the score after 88 minutes, but the home side's defenders cleared the ball on the line, after a long shot coming in from the left rebounded off the crossbar. Neither team was controlling the possession at this point in the match, with the stats showing a 50:50 split.

K. Jansiņš performed admirably for Pierikos-Archelaos. On the other hand, R. Koomen's play was disheartening. Most important TORONTO player was R. Verlee. However, C. Ratzeburger made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 0.