Explosion 1 - 2 CubaLibre (393254409)

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 809 to La Bolgia Esplosiva. Vasco Malheiro was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rients Westelaken and George Mersmann. Explosion tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Starters: Mattia - Belloni, Parenti, Malandrino - Riso, Van Bever, Vinerbi, Penthor, Efremoski - Franca, Karpf.

CubaLibre decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. Lineup: Cabeza - Tobia, Zhao, Bogotá, Busquets - Signorelli, Brandt, Mohaupt, Nüöbauer, Vilches - He.

After 2 minutes, CubaLibre were awarded a free kick. Rather than shooting straight at goal, the taker went for an indirect variant which seemed to take his team mates a bit by surprise. S. Mohaupt did attempt a finish, but from an awkward position, sending the ball into the away fans. 23 minutes into the game, M. He was a hair's breadth away from giving CubaLibre the lead with a shot from over on the left. A prompt block by G. Mattia saved the home team that time. After 30 minutes Explosion's P. Belloni contracted a slight foot injury, but didn't want to leave the game. CubaLibre took the lead 31 minutes into the game, making the score 0 - 1 after some elegant movement down the middle. J. Nüöbauer was the scorer. CubaLibre had to make a substitution after 34 minutes. S. Mohaupt limped off the field and was replaced by B. Gudjahr. A. Signorelli really should have scored when he was chosen by fate to confront a wide open goal following a great play by I. Brandt after a corner. It was 0 - 1 at the break. CubaLibre claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

A drive down the left side allowed I. Vilches to get in close and score another goal for CubaLibre after 63 minutes, taking the score to 0 - 2. The local team's free kick specialist P. Belloni, reduced the away team's lead to 1 - 2 with a humdinger of a shot after 71 minutes. G. Mattia got a fingertip on I. Vilches's shot from the left 78 minutes in, and managed to keep the visitors from going up another goal. Possession was split evenly between the teams.

Explosion's top performer was clearly H. Karpf. However, G. Mattia made a disastrous appearance. Most important CubaLibre player was G. Tobia. J. Nüöbauer was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 2.