smannazzi 3 - 2 A.S.Velasca (381863760)

The 17924 fans in attendance at la bombonera were roasting in the hot sun. Tadeusz Herba was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Thomas Stålander and Poul Rieper. smannazzi decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. They fielded: Koch-Jägersberg - Luperto, Hörning - Sierżant, Soria, Karavida, Couto, Marazza - Dorrepaal, Hägele, Guardavaglia.

A.S.Velasca started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Radev - Olier, Fiorelli, Demirbüken - Saarenmaa, Di Mauro, Mandl, Carrera, Pamukchiev - Jurisa, Leeuwenberg.

At 7 minutes played, G. Marazza came in from the right with the intention of giving smannazzi the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. smannazzi had a good opportunity to take the lead as J. Dorrepaal came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of Z. Radev. This was a good period for the visitors, with several opportunities to take the lead, particularly when N. Di Mauro slipped through the defence on the right to come up alone against A. Koch-Jägersberg, but the home side's keeper showed his lightning reflexes. smannazzi's G. Marazza was shown a yellow card after 29 minutes for slicing down an opponent. After a fine move down the middle J. Dorrepaal nearly gave the home side a goal after 32 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. 33 minutes had elapsed when a great chance for smannazzi to take the lead after a good cross from the right found C. Couto alone with the keeper, but he chipped it to the wrong side of the post. A.S.Velasca caught their opponents out with a clever counterattack down the right wing 34 minutes into the match. K. Demirbüken was able to finish off the move - 0 - 1. N. Di Mauro came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over A. Koch-Jägersberg but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. It was 0 - 1 at the break. smannazzi claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

S. Guardavaglia wasn't much help defensively. His energy-consuming forward runs proved quite costly in the oppressive heat. After 63 minutes of play, G. Marazza equalised for smannazzi after an elegant attack from the right. The heat made it a terrible day for C. Couto, who seemed unable to keep up with the other players. The visitors grabbed the lead after B. Mandl's free kick succeeded, resulting in a score of 1 - 2. Due to some great work on the right wing smannazzi's J. Dorrepaal was able to even the score after 81 minutes to make the score 2 - 2. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to L. Luperto, but the smannazzi player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 3 - 2! smannazzi had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Most important smannazzi player was C. Couto. However, L. Luperto made a disastrous appearance. A.S.Velasca's top performer was clearly N. Di Mauro. J. Saarenmaa was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 2.