puk 2 - 5 River Ale (381726498)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 29440 at puk fc Arena today. Irwin Charles was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Emil Zadražil and Blair Usman. puk started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players took the field: van Zorg - Noite, Boga, Galante - Pettersen, Craven, Côte, Criscione, Brugier - Serrano, Breban.

River Ale decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. They fielded: Depauw - Fatih, Criscuolo - bin Abd Malek, Scorza, Regev, Lantos, Brunner - Quattrucci, Borges Carvalho, Willem.

A mistake by the home side's central defence after 25 minutes allowed R. Willem to score for River Ale. The scoreboard now read 0 - 1. R. Serrano showed the skills that make him a real crowd pleaser as he, after 26 minutes, wove through the guests' entire central defence and put the 1 - 1 equaliser away. A. Criscione was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was beautifully flicked on by H. Craven, but the ball bounced off the post to safety. River Ale's goal to make the score 1 - 2 came via a questionable penalty, but D. Brunner struck it home without a second thought. River Ale's P. Scorza got himself booked for a foul. With 38 minutes played, puk's K. Côte found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. With 40 minutes played, River Ale's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to R. Willem he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 1 - 3. The teams went for the halftime break at 1 - 3. puk claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

A marvellous puk effort on the right-hand side resulted in a goal after 57 minutes by E. Breban, making the score 2 - 3. With 58 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed R. Willem of River Ale to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 2 - 4. That was his third goal of the match - a hat trick for R. Willem. K. Regev left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 60 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. Q. Rousset was the replacement. Always quick and a menace to his opponents, D. Brunner was very close to getting through after 63 minutes, but he could only put the ball into the keeper's arms. After 67 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave A. Quattrucci a chance to increase the lead for River Ale, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 2 - 5. Content with how the game was proceeding, the River Ale coach let N. Ghini replace A. Quattrucci after 75 minutes. E. Breban charged down the left and looked sure to score for puk 82 minutes into the game, but his shot went just wide. Possession in this half belonged to puk, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time.

puk's top performer was clearly K. Côte. However, R. Serrano made a disastrous appearance. A. Lantos performed admirably for River Ale. A. bin Abd Malek turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 5.