Taranto 5 - 1 Blackhawks (381858742)

Dark skies made the crowd of 17261 at Erasmo Jacovone a little nervous, but the rain held off. Jens Jørgen Thorsgaard was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jack Zachariassen and Thomas Balsiger. Taranto tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. Starters: Moan - Asselborn, Lakkonen, Perkok, Kulmala - Batmaz, Ladnauskas, Esposito, Husum - Susa, Flores Lima.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Blackhawks. They fielded: Gómez de Villamayor - Manai, Bucher, Oetinger, Kiš - Leclère, Molenmaker, Kaluđerović, Cuper - Stanislav, Yalman.

Today, Taranto's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. After 3 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Blackhawks found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to solid. A. Asselborn neatly controlled the ball after a short corner, and knocked it on to T. Kulmala who had the whole net open before him, but only managed to hit the post. After 25 minutes of play, V. Husum gave the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Blackhawks were close to putting the equaliser away after 31 minutes as the opposing defence lost control of the ball to A. Stanislav in a scuffle towards the left of the goal, but in the end the ball was cleared over the dead ball line. Taranto had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. Taranto managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when C. Batmaz cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Taranto's V. Ladnauskas increased the lead to 3 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 33 minutes. Taranto were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Taranto to 4 - 0 as C. Batmaz finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. 4 - 0 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Blackhawks, with 51 percent of the ball.

The Blackhawks players spent the break getting a rerun of the team's tactical organisation and regained a excellent organisation when the game started again. The visitors replied 58 minutes into the game, reducing the home side's lead to 4 - 1, as C. Cuper dashed up the middle, easily lobbing the ball over the home team's keeper. Blackhawks's right side looked dangerous after 62 minutes, as A. Stanislav broke through. S. Moan continued to stifle them, however, as he made the save look easy. F. Esposito increased the lead for Taranto to 5 - 1, getting a head onto a hooked ball from the right. The ball looked to have taken a deflection on the way in, but he's claiming it! F. Manai had a couple of good opportunities to reply, but the home team's keeper S. Moan was simply unbeatable. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Taranto, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. Taranto's R. Susa swung in a good chance from the left, but the visitors' defence were able to clear the ball. Blackhawks enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession.

The most dominating Taranto player was without a doubt R. Susa. A. Asselborn was a disappointment, however. N. Yalman performed admirably for Blackhawks. However, C. Bucher made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 5 - 1.