AZUR 0 - 3 Unirea (68799204)

Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 55000 at AZUR DOME today. Ruud Gillebaard was the appointed referee with assistance provided by František Bureš and Salvatore Carboni. AZUR had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Teuscher - Conjaerts, Radich Christensen, Matthews - Hasselriis, Vintilescu, Alexandersson, Hauge, Jacobsson - Tso-Lin, Svensson.

Unirea had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Blomström - Silverell, Trifan, Atanasiu, Dumitru - Appleby, Plãticã, Vătăşescu, Niculescu - Palade, Eparu.

Unirea were relying on their ability to counter-attack. 2 minutes in, Unirea's D. Niculescu received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. With 11 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, M. Alexandersson needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. D. Niculescu showed why he is feared on the counterattack, breaking through in the middle and scoring for Unirea after 15 minutes to make the score 0 - 1. 0 - 1 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by AZUR, with 57 percent of the ball.

After 47 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for C. Eparu who increased Unirea's lead to 0 - 2. Confident in their lead, Unirea's players relaxed and focused more on defending the lead than increasing it. After 56 minutes, M. Svensson had a good opportunity to reduce the scoreline for AZUR with a chance created through the middle, but wasn't cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as M. Vintilescu tried lifting the ball over keeper B. Blomström. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. After 62 minutes M. Vintilescu could have reduced the lead with a blistering strike from the left wing, had it not been for an excellent block by the visitors' keeper. Unirea showed their counterattack skill 66 minutes into the match by breaking through the middle, with T. Palade scoring uncontested for 0 - 3. AZUR had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

Most important AZUR player was M. Vintilescu. G. Matthews on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Unirea player was D. Niculescu. B. Blomström on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 3.