Rw 0 - 1 astur (388547786)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and GD Arena saw a crowd turnout of 34145. Matej Hatiar was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Iancu Oanã and Sławomir Grabczyński. Rw started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Pisauri - Warning, Marques, Lohrentz - Zago, Baarssen, Bubat, Vilarnau, Stoichkov - Castellini, Ukalović.

astur tactics involved an interesting 5-3-2 combination. Starters: Corcellas - Brüggemann, Vinyals, Gall, Browne, Zeballos - Fernández, Saubot, Godó - Escorón, Torres.

There was concern in the stands when, at the 8 minute mark, Rw's K. Ukalović hit the ground hard, but he refused the attention of the trainer and rejoined his teammates on the pitch. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Q. Escorón got himself booked. The manager of astur was not happy. 38 minutes in, astur's A. Torres received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Rw were forced into a substitution as G. Castellini couldn't continue due to some rough treatment, forcing K. Knaepen to come in off the bench. Rw had a chance to take the lead after M. Marques's dazzling drive up the left, but the opportunity fizzled out as his shot went just over the bar after 40 minutes. astur's counterattack was impressive and was only stopped by a shocking foul. Somehow, the referee's cards remained in his pocket - a terrible decision! R. Vinyals's resulting free kick was easily saved by the keeper. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to Rw, who controlled the ball 70 percent of the time.

A. Torres's speed is always a threat when he gets a little room to move, and 66 minutes into the match was no different as he broke free of his man to send a delightful through ball to Q. Escorón who knocked it in for astur. 0 - 1! astur mounted an inspired counterattack down the right wing after 83 minutes, but F. Brüggemann was unable to convert from short range. Rw enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 69 percent of possession.

Rw's best player was D. Baarssen. On the other hand, D. Pisauri's play was disheartening. The most dominating astur player was without a doubt R. Vinyals. G. Godó on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 1.