Athletico 3 - 0 LEVANTE (366219148)

12000 fans braved the pouring rain at Arena dei Cani Blu. Andrey Bondarenko was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Fernando Aversa and Ramon Abolafio. Athletico tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Till - Walecka, Wasielewski, Sjölund - Ion, Kluftinger, Schneppe, Gaiser - Snoy et d'Oppuers, van Akkeren, Buchas.

LEVANTE decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players took the field: Moy - Tressoldi, Caggioni, Cammarata - Pierobon, Leguet, Spanu, Szeler, Scacciavillani - Pestaña, Koterwa.

D. Snoy et d'Oppuers caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 9 minutes. This gave Athletico the 1 - 0 lead. D. Schneppe of Athletico was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. The rain made it hard for players like A. Koterwa to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. After 30 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and T. Sjölund gave the Athletico supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 2 - 0. 35 minutes into the game, D. Snoy et d'Oppuers had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came G. Pepper. L. Pierobon had a couple of good opportunities to reply, but the home team's keeper A. Till was simply unbeatable. Athletico's U. Buchas increased the lead to 3 - 0, after he saw his shot go between the legs of the advancing goalkeeper following some good play down the right wing after 38 minutes. After this, you could see that the players of Athletico were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. 3 - 0 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Athletico, with 53 percent of the ball.

After 57 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by G. Pepper might have resulted in another goal for Athletico. However, D. Moy made a spectacular save. LEVANTE almost scored after a counterattack 58 minutes into the match, but L. Pierobon took a shot from the left that landed harmlessly in the side of the net. LEVANTE almost scored after a swift counterattack 80 minutes into the game, but A. Koterwa put the shot from the left flank just outside the goal. LEVANTE claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

The most dominating Athletico player was without a doubt U. Buchas. G. Pepper turned in a dismal performance, however. LEVANTE's top performer was clearly O. Pestaña. C. Cammarata was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 0.