Hofer 4 - 0 Brandelli (381663986)

It had rained all day, but 43795 hardy fans still made it out to Hofer F.C. Arena. Héctor Barajas was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Valentin Plater and Leonel Corda. Hofer tactics involved an interesting 2-5-3 combination. The following players took the field: Carsughi - Marsili, Petrone - Quitarrà, Cotugno, Claps, Aguirre, Tarvonen - Brizuela, Erb, Mora.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Brandelli. The following players had been chosen: Puyol - Barth, Rademacher, Marino - Yesevi, Petrangeli, Kolyvanov, Asara, Zwier - Audriņš, Cappelletto.

T. Rademacher had a good try after 4 minutes, coming in on a fine move from the left, but the ball went wide. 9 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but A. Cappelletto, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. L. Marsili sailed high above the opponents as he headed in a corner kick from M. Claps after 16 minutes of play, making the score 1 - 0. Hofer managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when G. Cotugno cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Cheers filled the stadium as P. Mora broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to Hofer. The teams went for the halftime break at 3 - 0. Hofer had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

T. Erb had a fantastic opportunity to put Hofer up another goal 53 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. Hofer's G. Cotugno got himself booked for a foul. Unfortunately for Brandelli, S. Barth was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. R. Salis replaced him. After 68 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by F. Petrone might have resulted in another goal for Hofer. However, T. Puyol made a spectacular save. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave M. Claps from Hofer a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 78 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! E. Petrangeli was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Brandelli's S. Zwieb had to come off the bench. K. Audriņš spent most of the time in a heap on the ground today, his normally rapid movement hindered by the slippery pitch. Hofer's A. Quitarrà increased the lead to 4 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 84 minutes. After this, you could see that the players of Hofer were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. Hofer claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

D. Carsughi performed admirably for Hofer. On the other hand, F. Petrone's play was disheartening. Brandelli's top performer was clearly A. Cappelletto. R. Salis on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 0.