Dragons 3 - 0 Atlético (382894247)

Dark skies made the crowd of 27502 at El Nuevo Bosque de Fangorn a little nervous, but the rain held off. Francisco Velón was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Heiko Coelingh and Torben Johansen. Dragons started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. Lineup: Nebreda - Fernández Casariego, Dutra, Albà, Pujol - Dorukan, Sanz, Ramírez de Mora, Vasiljević, Compte - Krameri.

Atlético tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players took the field: Villalcázar - Pardo, Loebbeke, Rúa - Paepenmüller, Moscoso, Pirez, Lavandeira - Rensink, Campoy, Hirvonen.

The wings were the focus of most of Dragons's attacks today. 33 minutes into the game, T. Dutra had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came Q. Avelar. N. Sanz sailed high above the opponents as he headed in a corner kick from J. Pujol after 39 minutes of play, making the score 1 - 0. Dragons had a good opportunity to attack in the middle, but remembered their instructions to focus on wing attacks instead. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Dragons to 2 - 0 as G. Dorukan finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Dragons lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Dragons increased the lead as J. Pujol struck to make the score 3 - 0 after an attack from the left left him unmarked in front of the keeper. 44 minutes in, Dragons's Q. Avelar received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. P. Pardo was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Atlético's P. Facchin had to come off the bench. Halftime score was 3 - 0. Dragons had most of the ball, with 56 percent of possession.

With 50 minutes played, J. Pujol could have brought this one home for Dragons as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Dragons, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. With 61 minutes gone, a long pass from the defence of Atlético resulted in a counterattack that set A. Hirvonen free through the middle, but the keeper made a spectacular diving save. Atlético's F. Rensink got himself booked for a foul. Possession in this half belonged to Atlético, who controlled the ball 51 percent of the time.

The most dominating Dragons player was without a doubt I. Nebreda. However, Q. Avelar made a disastrous appearance. F. Rensink performed admirably for Atlético. On the other hand, J. Villalcázar's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.