LERPAS 3 - 3 Sporting (386246281)

37830 spectators had come to J.P. Arena this cloudy day. Dejan Renevey was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Sang-Jin Lee and Stig Trøjborg. LERPAS tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Neubacher - Minnigerode, Vasilkus, Ben-Chaim - Palacios, Salgueiro, Snetkov, Montoya, Evensen - Dave, Marinho.

Sporting decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. The following players took the field: Som - Sánchez, Parrino, Maneslavić, Niva - Shemesh, Neugebauer, Grama, Turmero, Deient - Capisagasti.

LERPAS saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Sporting were mostly trying to use their skill at attacking on the flanks. Sporting's W. Deient gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead after 3 minutes with a superb strike from the right. LERPAS's P. Palacios got himself booked for a foul. Unfortunately for Sporting, O. Parrino was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. C. Dobre replaced him. Sporting increased their lead after 26 minutes when W. Deient broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 2, much to the home crowd's dismay. A. Marinho hit the ball perfectly after 28 minutes to score for LERPAS with a fabulous long shot. 1 - 2. Sporting's F. Neugebauer had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 29 minutes having been played. G. Smug was the replacement. LERPAS tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. 1 - 2 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by LERPAS, with 53 percent of the ball.

W. Deient of Sporting took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 49 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 1 - 3. This third goal completed a hattrick for W. Deient. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Sporting lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Attacking on the wings was the choice for Sporting, and they were successfully passing the ball from the middle to the wings to attack. Unhappy with the result so far in the game, the LERPAS manager used a brief break in play after 60 minutes to give the players new directives. After 65 minutes, LERPAS switched Ø. Evensen with V. Jacquel, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. After 75 minutes, LERPAS used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. The LERPAS coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Shemesh from Sporting a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 79 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! The situation leading to LERPAS's penalty 82 minutes into the match will be much debated after the game ends, but the competent L. Dave didn't hesitate to make the score 2 - 3. Given a free kick close to the byline, LERPAS tried a move that loyal fans may recognise from training. A pass to the side pulled the defence out of position which let F. Montoya slip through on goal. He didn't have to break his stride, and slipped the ball past the keeper to make it 3 - 3, 84 minutes into the game. LERPAS had most of the ball, with 55 percent of possession.

Most important LERPAS player was F. Montoya. On the other hand, O. Neubacher's play was disheartening. The most dominating Sporting player was without a doubt V. Grama. C. Dobre on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 3.