Borbotones 2 - 3 Sporting (393060376)

Dark skies made the crowd of 35544 at Estanislao H. Bemborini a little nervous, but the rain held off. Mihajlo Budisavljević was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Urbano Periccioli and Maciej Malski. A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Borbotones. They fielded: Turcu - Kassem, Mirarchi, Vilar, Zaltzman - van Luin, Coa, Sbampato, Tarrío - Falkenflod, Fernández de la Cruz.

Sporting decided to use a 2-5-3 set up. Lineup: Antić - Scopessi, Venere - Marinello, Sabatini, Gömöri, Dassen, Rivadero - Salinas, Ivarsson, Jiménez.

The guests took the lead 30 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in J. Jiménez scoring to make it 0 - 1. J. Jiménez came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over L. Turcu but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. L. Turcu got a fingertip on M. Salinas's shot from the left 37 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. 38 minutes in, Borbotones's A. Vilar received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Sporting's A. Rivadero made it through the home team's defence on the right hand side 41 minutes into the match. After rounding the keeper, he only had to place the ball in the unguarded goal when a defender slid in and cleared the ball off the line. The home crowd was not impressed when A. Ivarsson came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 44 minutes. Sporting were now up 0 - 2. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Sporting lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. 0 - 2 was the score after the first half. Sporting had most of the ball, with 60 percent of possession.

51 minutes into the match, A. Sabatini came through the middle and almost added to his team's lead, but the shot went wide. After the ball was lifted in from the left, A. Rivadero was on his own in the home side's penalty area and should have scored after 55 minutes, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. Borbotones were awarded a penalty 66 minutes into the match and H. van Luin fired the ball into the net to make the score 1 - 2. G. Venere was, after 72 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors' lead with a well placed diving header after the ball had looped into the centre, but the home side's keeper L. Turcu made the save. After a short break after 75 minutes, Sporting seemed to change their tactical approach a bit. After 75 minutes, the Sporting players received new instructions from their manager on how to keep in control of the game. In an effort to secure the lead, Sporting changed their tactic after 75 minutes. The game was close to savage at times, and Borbotones's A. Vilar received a second yellow card after 75 minutes; his ticket out of the game. After 78 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave G. Venere a chance to increase the lead for Sporting, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 1 - 3. After 79 minutes, H. van Luin sent the corner kick right to J. Falkenflod who headed it sharply past the keeper. 2 - 3! Borbotones's T. Fernández de la Cruz made an attempt at equalising 83 minutes into the match, coming in from the right, but the ball hit the post and the defence easily cleared the rebound. Sporting claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 64 percent.

Borbotones's top performer was clearly T. Fernández de la Cruz. Y. Zaltzman on the other hand, had a terrible day. Sporting's best player was M. Dassen. On the other hand, A. Ivarsson's play was disheartening. The match ends 2 - 3.