Roses 4 - 2 Pills (392648327)

Dark skies made the crowd of 20500 at Four Roses Stadium a little nervous, but the rain held off. Pavlos Vatatzis was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Arkadiusz Muranowicz and Mãdãlin Zamfir. Roses had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Ruelle - Saturno, Maimiño, Stadtmann - Długowski, Limbach, Moniz, Malogajski, Monjaraz - Quelhas, Gurgel.

Pills tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. Starters: Cascales - Búrdalo, Cami, Bretal, Vila - Čeloud, González-Mohíno, Fernández Cueto, Iparraguirre, Back - Núñez Troya.

Roses seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. After 8 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. F. Stadtmann easily put the ball away to give the lead to Roses. 1 - 0 The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave F. Stadtmann from Roses a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 18 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! 22 minutes into the game S. Quelhas could see that the opposing goalie was out of position and tried an unexpected lob that the keeper just barely reached. The rebound went to P. Długowski who failed to hit the target. The visiting team's J. Back was able to score the 1 - 1 equaliser with a header 28 minutes into the match, after some good work on the right. 1 - 1 was the score after the first half. Roses had most of the ball, with 58 percent of possession.

After 46 minutes, the Pills coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving M. Iparraguirre off the field. F. Carlán took his place. The home side put themselves ahead 2 - 1 after 59 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from P. Długowski, who scored with a stunning volley following a cross from the right wing. The Pills coach was desperate to reverse his team's fortunes in the game, and ordered his team to change strategy. Roses players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. P. Maimiño had a fantastic opportunity to put Roses up another goal 76 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. Pills had a chance to level the score as X. Bretal suddenly found himself free in the middle of the box with only the keeper to beat, but he misjudged the finish, and only managed to hit the bar. After 80 minutes, Pills used a short break in the game to take new instructions from their coach. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of Roses to 3 - 1 as J. Moniz finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. Roses's F. Stadtmann struck his penalty well enough to beat the goalkeeper and extend the home team's lead to 4 - 1 after 84 minutes. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Roses lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. After 87 minutes, R. Búrdalo chose the right corner while taking his penalty, humiliating the home keeper, who dived in the wrong direction. The goal reduced the home lead to 4 - 2. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Roses, with 56 percent of the ball.

The most dominating Roses player was without a doubt S. Quelhas. However, M. Gurgel made a disastrous appearance. Pills's top performer was clearly H. Núñez Troya. I. González-Mohíno on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.