Corato 7 - 2 C.U.S.Roma (381672757)

Dark skies made the crowd of 38571 at Samuel Zunzunegui Stadium a little nervous, but the rain held off. Lech Jablonski was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tore Fredblom and Bengt Klausen. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Corato. The following players took the field: Gallo - Dyhr, Disco, Nørgaard - Mac Eachen, mollashahi, Kulbicki, Marion, Kahle - Bougon, Graf.

C.U.S.Roma decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. Lineup: Ponticelli - Impellizzeri, Basta - Nobre, Lazãr, Botta, Rytter, Van Belle - Giraud, Tervaskanto, Alexandre.

C.U.S.Roma took the lead after 2 minutes making the score 0 - 1. F. Alexandre placed the ball out of reach for the home side's keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. After 12 minutes, E. Kulbicki made a dash down the middle past the away team's defenders to score the goal that made it 1 - 1. C.U.S.Roma's E. Basta had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 13 minutes having been played. L. Brasini was the replacement. A penalty was given after 16 minutes, allowing the visitors to gain the lead: 1 - 2. E. Van Belle was the scorer. The unexpected cross pass from Corato's R. Kahle after 17 minutes opened up the defence and was received by B. Graf who finished off for 2 - 2. Corato fans held their breath as B. Graf scampered down the left side. He successfully avoided all challenges and cracked home the shot for 3 - 2! 36 minutes in, C.U.S.Roma's D. Lazãr received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. The player down was N. Marion. The Corato bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Corato's A. Bougon increasing the lead to 4 - 2. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave B. Graf from Corato a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 40 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! 4 - 2 was the score after the first half. Corato enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 58 percent of possession.

Cheers filled the stadium as R. Kahle broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 5 - 2 to Corato. 56 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as S. Disco broke through, making the score 6 - 2 for Corato. Corato increased the lead as B. Graf struck to make the score 7 - 2 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. At that, B. Graf was noted down for a hat trick! After this, you could see that the players of Corato were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Corato, with 60 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Corato player was without a doubt B. Graf. A. Bougon on the other hand, had a terrible day. C.U.S.Roma's best player was B. Giraud. L. Brasini was a disappointment, however. The match ends 7 - 2.