Bonacatu 4 - 3 Avola (381678959)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 34538 at S. Romualdo today. Domenico Grassmeyer was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Stefan Sundhult and Juan Antonio Pérez. Bonacatu tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Olla - Pierri, Meier, Scaramelli - Pau, Badan, Grigorescu, Guidotti, Ducco - Roszyk, Trequattrini.

A 5-3-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Avola. The following players had been chosen: Bihan - Klausen, Raev, Ionescu, Haatanen, Maggioros - Stupakov, Busuioc, Lemann - Stubberud, Forsbeck.

Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Avola. The referee showed Avola's N. Maggioros the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. D. Pau caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 24 minutes. This gave Bonacatu the 1 - 0 lead. Bonacatu managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when G. Pierri cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Confident in their lead, Bonacatu's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. The counterattack by Avola resulted in a free kick that E. Stupakov bent under the crossbar - 2 - 1! Halftime score was 2 - 1. Bonacatu claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 72 percent.

Avola had a great opportunity to score following a counterattack after 49 minutes, but N. Maggioros's shot from the left sailed high over the bar. B. Meier of Bonacatu seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 3 - 1 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by M. Badan. A swift counterattack by Avola resulted in a free kick that E. Stupakov elegantly twisted into the goal - 3 - 2! That Avola's V. Raev has the ability of doing what no one expects him to do was shown as he ran over an opposing defender, snatched the ball and passed to B. Forsbeck who hit it hard into the wide open goal after 70 minutes: 3 - 3! Bonacatu's G. Pierri was shown a yellow card after 82 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Unfortunately for Avola, V. Raev was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. K. Clemmensen replaced him. 84 minutes in, Bonacatu's R. Ducco received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. 85 minutes into the match and the home team took a 4 - 3 lead after breaking through on the left. The scorer for Bonacatu was W. Roszyk. Possession in this half belonged to Bonacatu, who controlled the ball 72 percent of the time.

Bonacatu's best player was P. Grigorescu. W. Roszyk turned in a dismal performance, however. Avola's top performer was clearly P. Stubberud. K. Clemmensen on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 3.