Bucovina 0 - 4 Constanta (392636462)

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Areni Arena saw a crowd turnout of 17000. David Hermansson was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ulrik Wilmar and Alexey Fedorov. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Bucovina. Starters: Papadima - Bâlbă, Peteanu - Strat, Eto'o, Steinhauser, Ivan, Constantin - Levinţa, Andrei, Ghiţoiu.

Constanta tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. They fielded: Nietzer - Reis Jesus, Billund, Brânaru, Tischler - Martin, Cioroiu, Băluţă, Cristea, Belu - Almássy.

Pressing was the tactic of the day for Bucovina. After 13 minutes, Constanta's S. Belu made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. In a rapid move 23 minutes into the match, S. Belu of Constanta lost his man and passed the ball to the unmarked Z. Almássy who easily hit it home to make it 0 - 2. Luckily the ref didn't see him taunting the opposing fans in celebration - naughty boy! The coach of Constanta was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 23 minutes, C. Kongaa came on for F. Martin. C. Kongaa was handed the Constanta captain's armband. Z. Almássy wanted to play on, but the Constanta coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 24 minutes into the game by K. Dudkiewicz. By now, the players in Constanta felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. With 34 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, P. Eto'o needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. Bucovina's J. Steinhauser was shown a yellow card after 36 minutes for slicing down an opponent. 40 minutes into the game, H. Ivan had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came R. Ivan. 0 - 2 was the score after the first half. Constanta had most of the ball, with 72 percent of possession.

Constanta increased their lead after 55 minutes when T. Tischler broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 3, much to the home crowd's dismay. Constanta had to make a substitution after 72 minutes. F. Nietzer limped off the field and was replaced by G. De Maeyer. Bucovina pressed their opponents, causing the game to be a bit of a stalemate at times. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave V. Levinţa from Bucovina a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 74 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! 81 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 4 as C. Kongaa finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. Possession in this half belonged to Constanta, who controlled the ball 74 percent of the time.

The most dominating Bucovina player was without a doubt R. Ghiţoiu. On the other hand, V. Peteanu's play was disheartening. Constanta's best player was N. Cioroiu. K. Dudkiewicz on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 4.