Steaua 5 - 0 Meer (393619895)

Clouds darkened the skies at Stadionul "Marius Lacatus" as 3222 spectators turned up for the match. Jesper Mangor was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Victor Anton and Marcos Nalda. Steaua tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Ventriglia - Aubert, Calderer, Blaha - Bozgan, Bazsó, Kaņepājs, Vörös, Zamir - Spano, Petrescu.

A 4-3-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Meer. The following players had been chosen: Cojocaru - Malsburg, Pellikka, Putz, Bianchi - Külaots, Næss, Záškvara - Puglits, Göd, Obando.

Steaua had a good opportunity to take the lead as S. Petrescu came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of C. Cojocaru. Steaua broke through on the left 19 minutes into the game, with D. Zamir firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave J. Puglits from Meer a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 29 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! Things were deteriorating for the away team as Steaua scored another to make it 2 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for I. Bozgan after 35 minutes. After 39 minutes, S. Petrescu sent the corner kick right to T. Vörös who headed it sharply past the keeper. 3 - 0! The score became 4 - 0 at 41 minutes into the game, when Steaua were given a penalty which S. Petrescu blasted straight down the middle giving the keeper no chance! Halftime score was 4 - 0. Steaua claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 79 percent.

With 50 minutes played, L. Spano could have brought this one home for Steaua as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Steaua's S. Petrescu increasing the lead to 5 - 0. The players of Steaua now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. After 74 minutes, Meer 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. J. Puglits did attempt a finish, but from an awkward position, sending the ball into the away fans. Possession in this half belonged to Steaua, who controlled the ball 82 percent of the time.

The most dominating Steaua player was without a doubt L. Spano. On the other hand, I. Bozgan's play was disheartening. J. Puglits performed admirably for Meer. O. Bianchi turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 5 - 0.