BlacKnights 4 - 2 Carucha (394064566)

Dark skies made the crowd of 1834 at Ruy López de Segura a little nervous, but the rain held off. Giuseppe Bandiera was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Bret Morán and Dragos Pasca. The match took place on neutral ground. BlacKnights tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Lavrentyev - Maza, Saldivia, Santos Cunha - Gatzemeyer, Solano, Bozhinov, Monti Carlo, Di Ronza - Jeppesen, van Geel.

Carucha had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Simunovic - Benítez, Elia, Alfonso - Acuña, Huechun, Wasner, Lopez Abellán, Estacio - Nyhave Nielsen, Makhanya.

After 18 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. R. Gatzemeyer easily put the ball away to give the lead to BlacKnights. 1 - 0 With 20 minutes played, the visitors almost levelled the score. M. Alfonso shot a hard curved free kick, striking the post. BlacKnights solidified their lead at the 32 minute mark, as B. Jeppesen dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 2 - 0. Good work by the BlacKnights defensive line after 34 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found A. Solano alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. BlacKnights's A. van Geel saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 36 minutes. The visitors' right side was dangerous today; M. Makhanya made the home team's keeper look foolish as he easily reduced the lead to make it 2 - 1 41 minutes into the match. 2 - 1 was the score after the first half. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by BlacKnights, with 58 percent of the ball.

Things were going to get worse for the visitors. D. Bozhinov squirmed through their central defence after 79 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 1. The BlacKnights players could smell victory in the air. A. Solano wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for A. Runceanu after 79 minutes. BlacKnights put themselves up 4 - 1 when A. van Geel broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. The coach of BlacKnights was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 84 minutes, F. Bispo came on for B. Jeppesen. After this, you could see that the players of BlacKnights were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. A. Monti Carlo couldn't do anything to stop the technically gifted A. Nyhave Nielsen as he dodged past on his way to scoring a wonderful goal for Carucha - 4 - 2! M. Makhanya had a couple of good opportunities to reply, but the home team's keeper L. Lavrentyev was simply unbeatable. After a short break after 88 minutes, BlacKnights seemed to change their tactical approach a bit. After 89 minutes, BlacKnights felt secure enough to make a tactical change. L. Lavrentyev and A. van Geel assumed each others positions on the field. After 89 minutes, the BlacKnights players received new instructions from their manager on how to keep in control of the game. BlacKnights enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession.

Most important BlacKnights player was F. Bispo. A. van Geel turned in a dismal performance, however. The most dominating Carucha player was without a doubt M. Wasner. J. Estacio on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.