PuTiS 4 - 3 jirinays (382908249)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 21154 at Txitxarro Arena today. Krzysztof Krzysztofiak was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Hervé Ardilouze and Víctor Agámez. PuTiS had chosen a strategic 3-4-2 formation. Lineup: Eck - Melo, Overwyk, Grigore - Rumold, Bladin, Johnston, Balawejder - Nădejde, Gauthier.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for jirinays. The following players had been chosen: Idoeta - Astorga, Endemaño, Guzmán Cano - Serafin, Artigas, Gardoqui, Ribet, Johansson - Molina, Casas.

PuTiS seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. 8 minutes into the game, E. Astorga had a great chance to put his team ahead, but his kick from the left went wide. jirinays's H. Johansson gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead after 12 minutes with a superb strike from the right. 22 minutes into the game, PuTiS had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to inadequate. After 27 minutes of play, S. Gauthier evened things up for PuTiS with an impressive goal coming up the middle. 1 - 1. The visitors' central defence should have had no trouble clearing the pass to S. Gauthier, but the PuTiS player managed to shrug them off and fired a low shot past the keeper to give his team the lead. 2 - 1! PuTiS's I. Grigore had an excellent opportunity after 35 minutes, shooting after receiving a pass from the right hand side, but he missed the goal by miles! It was 2 - 1 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to jirinays, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time.

The coach gave his players an extra tactical briefing during the break, and after that PuTiS had solid organisation. Things were deteriorating for the away team as PuTiS scored another to make it 3 - 1 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for S. Gauthier after 47 minutes. This third goal completed a hattrick for S. Gauthier. jirinays's R. Gardoqui was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 48 minutes. With 53 minutes played, Ó. Guzmán Cano of jirinays fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. jirinays fought on and, after 54 minutes, J. Molina was able to reduce the deficit to 3 - 2 after some excellent moves on the right side were finished off with an incredibly clever chip. 73 minutes into the game, PuTiS seemed a little tentative in their play as their organization fell to weak. E. Nădejde increased the lead for PuTiS to 4 - 2, 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! 76 minutes in, PuTiS's S. Gauthier received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. R. Gardoqui of jirinays had to be helped off the pitch as an injury meant he was unable to finish the game. A. Triay came in to finish the match. M. Casas's speed is always a threat when he gets a little room to move, and 78 minutes into the match was no different as he broke free of his man to send a delightful through ball to J. Molina who knocked it in for jirinays. 4 - 3! With 81 minutes played, the visitors almost levelled the score. J. Molina shot a hard curved free kick, striking the post. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by jirinays, with 57 percent of the ball.

PuTiS's top performer was clearly S. Gauthier. D. Balawejder turned in a dismal performance, however. J. Endemaño performed admirably for jirinays. However, K. Idoeta made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 3.