ARIPILE 2 - 3 Diamantul (365323838)

It had rained all day, but 12221 hardy fans still made it out to ingerii zburatori. Christoffer Prang was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Fabrizio Teolis and Finn-Örje Henriksson. ARIPILE tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Przybytniak - Lorán, Vărcuş, Sarlo - Cătescu, Părăian, Costabile, Goran, Şopu - Trasborg, Pyrmont.

Diamantul started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. Lineup: Gobert - Amarandei, Baudinet, Sobreda, Podeanu - Georgescu, Neira, Heeke, Ganea - Twomey, Poulsen.

ARIPILE seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Diamantul mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. After 7 minutes, the home side was awarded a penalty. The visitors protested wildly but the referee was adamant. V. Goran easily put the ball away to give the lead to ARIPILE. 1 - 0 It was obvious that team ARIPILE had instructions to attack in the middle instead of on the wings. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Diamantul, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Diamantul tied it all up, 23 minutes in, after a spectacular goal by I. Sobreda, who miraculously broke through the home side's central defence, making it 1 - 1. ARIPILE players heard their coach's words ringing in their ears and steered their wing attacks to the middle instead. They were singing the praises of P. Vărcuş 28 minutes into the match after his speculative chip from the middle of the penalty box found its way over the visitors' keeper to make the score 2 - 1 to ARIPILE. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, C. Şopu got himself booked. The manager of ARIPILE was not happy. An equalising goal seemed certain after 36 minutes when H. Poulsen attacked down the left wing, but B. Przybytniak just managed to make a save to keep the ball out of the net. ARIPILE's R. Pyrmont was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 37 minutes. 2 - 1 was the halftime score. ARIPILE claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 55 percent.

A great save by keeper W. Gobert after 52 minutes kept the visitors in the game after V. Goran struck from the left with a real cannonball. Diamantul played a good counterattacking move down the left 56 minutes into the match, with N. Baudinet finishing well for 2 - 2. R. Pyrmont of ARIPILE got sent off for kicking the ball after the whistle, a completely uncalled for move, earning him his second yellow card of the game. V. Neira was having a great game - if anything the pouring rain seemed to be spurring him on! H. Poulsen would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. A. Andreescu entered the game for Diamantul as the match clock showed 70 minutes. Diamantul took the lead after 80 minutes making the score 2 - 3. I. Sobreda placed the ball out of reach for the home side's keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by ARIPILE, with 53 percent of the ball.

ARIPILE's top performer was clearly A. Trasborg. However, P. Vărcuş made a disastrous appearance. Most important Diamantul player was A. Twomey. A. Andreescu on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 3.