ALMANCIL 2 - 1 TGH (393692531)

A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 3919 to Estádio Alma XXI. Tommaso Floris was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Ulrich Winner and Nicola Galati. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for ALMANCIL. The following players took the field: Rebelo - Oom, Maurice - Costa Graça, Resende, Sá, Cardoso, Leite - Prestes, Maia, Pereira Brandão.

TGH started off with a 5-2-3 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Fuendetodos - Vomela, Beedle, Erasmus, Bretoni, Saralegui - Vesterstad, Chía - Fraser, Ternent, Thomas.

L. Pereira Brandão enjoyed the sunshine and demonstrated his stunning technique over and over again. With 21 minutes played J. Sá almost put the home team one ahead on a cross coming in from the right, but the shot went just wide. Many thought A. Maia ought to have been awarded a penalty 25 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around V. Fuendetodos after a determined run through the middle. 28 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but S. Thomas, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. M. Rantavuori was called on to replace TGH's G. Saralegui after 32 minutes following a nasty collision. Halftime score was 0 - 0. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by ALMANCIL, with 58 percent of the ball.

46 minutes into the match, the TGH manager wanted to try a new tactic, and the players loyally obliged. Priding himself in being an active coach, the TGH manager gave new instructions to his players after 46 minutes. S. Cardoso received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly 65 minutes into the match, probably out of lack of experience, and almost let an opponent score. B. Oom would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. N. Ramilo entered the game for ALMANCIL as the match clock showed 70 minutes. N. Prestes gave ALMANCIL the lead with a beautiful free kick after 78 minutes. 1 - 0! After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, M. Vomela got himself booked. The manager of TGH was not happy. The heat made it a terrible day for N. Ramilo, who seemed unable to keep up with the other players. S. Maurice got left behind when TGH's G. Fraser made a sudden run forward after 82 minutes, finishing off with a neat strike. 1 - 1! The referee showed ALMANCIL's N. Ramilo the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The intense heat forced G. Fraser into making some errors because he couldn't seem to keep up with the others. After 86 minutes, S. Cardoso came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 2 - 1, giving ALMANCIL the lead. A. Maia could have put ALMANCIL up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 87 minutes. ALMANCIL enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 60 percent of possession.

L. Leite performed admirably for ALMANCIL. However, R. Rebelo made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating TGH player was without a doubt M. Vomela. H. Ternent turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 1.