Xemi 3 - 2 caceres (383387369)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 3185 at Xemi Team Arena today. Appie Bonnink was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Pascal Marquardt and Mariusz Kudłacik. Xemi had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. They fielded: Perea - Toxo, Wasfi, Puche García, Huici - Guruceta, Porcar, Castro, García Labarce - Karagyozov, Embil.

caceres started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Vivas - Araujo, Gilavert, Guirao, Pulido Martín - Relinque, Nitzov, Bassols, Carabias - Turrà, Anxeriz.

At 37 minutes played, Á. Guruceta came in from the right with the intention of giving Xemi the lead, but his rocket of a shot rattled the crossbar. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, A. Guirao got himself booked. The manager of caceres was not happy. caceres had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 42 minutes in when Q. Bassols came up alone against V. Perea who managed a block. With 43 minutes played, the excellent ball from the wing by caceres's E. Carabias reached L. Turrà's head, and he is not one to miss such an opportunity - 0 - 1. E. Carabias increased the visitors' lead by putting a volley away after a pass from the right. 0 - 2. Halftime score was 0 - 2. caceres enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

After the ball was lifted in from the left, Q. Bassols was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 49 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. Good work by the Xemi defensive line after 50 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found V. Karagyozov alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. Xemi's J. Castro had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 56 minutes having been played. F. Céspedes was the replacement. 58 minutes into the game Xemi broke through on the left wing and Á. Guruceta managed to reduce the lead to 1 - 2. After 78 minutes, X. Toxo made a dash down the middle past the away team's defenders to score the goal that made it 2 - 2. The referee showed caceres's E. Araujo the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 80 minutes played, M. Nitzov of caceres fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. After some beautiful movement down the left wing, Á. Guruceta scored for Xemi putting them ahead 3 - 2, after 81 minutes. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Xemi, with 54 percent of the ball.

Xemi's best player was V. Karagyozov. V. Perea on the other hand, had a terrible day. L. Turrà performed admirably for caceres. E. Vivas was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 2.