Elx 0 - 5 Gatos (383142352)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Elx C.F Arena saw a crowd turnout of 7877. Pontus Godlund was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Mojmír Riegel and Leo Larsson. Elx had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Starters: Leitao - Argüelles, Agirregoitia, Pinedo, Gallego - Navarro, Peyronill, Bonxe, Zumarraga - Gallate, Echeverialzueta.

Gatos tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Acheros - Sanseverino, Puig Martin, Amorós, Tzekov - Linares Torras, Gutiérrez-Calderón, Lixó, Sarabia - Viader, Marañon.

Some things can only be learned through experience, and L. Peyronill should take his lesson to heart after nearly gifting Gatos a goal with 7 minutes of the match played. Gatos took the lead 12 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. J. Amorós was the scorer. With 13 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed L. Tzekov of Gatos to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 2. After this, you could see that the players of Gatos were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. After the ball was lifted in from the left, C. Linares Torras was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 25 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, A. Gutiérrez-Calderón got himself booked. The manager of Gatos was not happy. V. Gualba was called on to replace Gatos's A. Gutiérrez-Calderón after 31 minutes following a nasty collision. It was 0 - 2 at the break. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Gatos, with 67 percent of the ball.

S. Leitao got a fingertip on J. Sanseverino's shot from the left 55 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. After 65 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave J. Puig Martin a chance to increase the lead for Gatos, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 3. After 67 minutes, Gatos's J. Puig Martin burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 4. X. Lixó of Gatos was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. After 73 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for A. Viader who increased Gatos's lead to 0 - 5. Gatos claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 70 percent.

Most important Elx player was H. Zumarraga. D. Gallego turned in a dismal performance, however. The most dominating Gatos player was without a doubt R. Marañon. L. Tzekov on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 5.