Ostia 3 - 0 Pusteblume (393984742)

The crowd of 3504 turning up at Comunale Stella Polare di Ostia today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Niels Elkjær was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Bohumír Haluško and Benoit Vernet. Ostia had chosen a strategic 2-5-3 formation. Lineup: Gabella - Anušić, Alighini - Bompani, Mauricio, Ingold, Darwish, Mazzalai - Crockett, Bruzzese, Schimmel.

Pusteblume started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Worth - Hirschbühl, Degani, Orlandi, Brasey, Bouchi - Uhland, Belser, Dalla Corte, Huebner - Le Dortz.

Pusteblume clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Slack defending gave Ostia a chance to take the lead with 8 minutes played, but H. Ingold's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. E. Bompani gave Ostia the lead with a beautiful free kick after 18 minutes. 1 - 0! The referee showed Pusteblume's A. Huebner the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 33 minutes played, H. Ingold could have brought this one home for Ostia as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. With 36 minutes played, the visitors could have drawn level after A. Le Dortz came through the middle, but his kick went wide. 37 minutes in, Pusteblume's A. Le Dortz received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Halftime score was 1 - 0. Ostia had most of the ball, with 67 percent of possession.

Content with how the game was proceeding, the Ostia coach let L. Rabanal replace A. Crockett after 46 minutes. Ostia managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when F. Anušić cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. Cheers filled the stadium as H. Ingold broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to Ostia. H. Ingold was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. Coming from the right, L. Rabanal almost managed to score another goal for Ostia, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. 86 minutes into the game, Pusteblume had difficulty finding their positions and their organisation dropped to weak. M. Bruzzese had a fantastic opportunity to put Ostia up another goal 87 minutes into the match, but he fired just over the crossbar. Pusteblume mounted an inspired counterattack down the right wing after 88 minutes, but R. Degani was unable to convert from short range. Possession in this half belonged to Ostia, who controlled the ball 67 percent of the time.

Ostia's best player was E. Bompani. However, R. Gabella made a disastrous appearance. R. Degani performed admirably for Pusteblume. On the other hand, H. Belser's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.