Ungheni 3 - 1 Speranta (374430431)

The crowd of 38460 turning up at Stadium of Liberty today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Enrique Foncueva was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jukka Minkkinen and Paulo Isidoro Varela Jr.. Ungheni started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players took the field: Abol - Vaglaots, Beurskens, Popovici, Schierstedt - Yu, Bogaert, Brenninkmeyer, Barbu - Lallena, Lucena.

Speranta tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. Starters: Cambet - Dragoni, Brun, Żaba - Arcoverde, Van Werveke, Badea, Tisler - Venkatesh, Delibašić, Krot.

Speranta seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Central attacks were the recipe of the day for Speranta, as they moved the ball from the wings to the middle with startling regularity. Speranta had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 3 minutes in when Ş. Badea came up alone against A. Abol who managed a block. G. Brun was having a great game - if anything the pouring rain seemed to be spurring him on! A. Abol looked great 8 minutes into the match after stopping a shot from the middle of the penalty area from the visitors' Ş. Badea. The home side put themselves ahead 1 - 0 after 12 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from J. Lucena, who scored with a stunning volley following a cross from the right wing. One of many good crosses from R. Yu on the wing was received and skillfully taken care of by J. Lucena, who scored for Ungheni. 2 - 0 Speranta's right side looked dangerous after 20 minutes, as W. Arcoverde broke through. A. Abol continued to stifle them, however, as he made the save look easy. It was 2 - 0 at the break. Speranta had most of the ball, with 53 percent of possession.

Speranta were determined to attack in the middle, even their wing attacks ended up centrally. Speranta were desperate to get a goal back and pushed forward through the middle 57 minutes into the game. After a scramble in the box, the ball dropped to G. Van Werveke, who smashed it home to make the score 2 - 1. Speranta's S. Venkatesh got himself booked for a foul. Unfortunately for Ungheni, H. Barbu was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. R. de Bont replaced him. I. Lallena was handed the Ungheni captain's armband. The cannonball from 35 metres by K. Żaba of Speranta was an impressive sight, but didn't make it into the net. The visitors kept the pressure on to tie the game when, after 69 minutes, U. Dragoni broke through the centre and found himself alone with the keeper. A. Abol made a great block, though. Speranta's L. Krot had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 72 minutes having been played. T. Özgüner was the replacement. Content with how the game was proceeding, the Ungheni coach let C. Pagliaro replace I. Lallena after 75 minutes. The Ungheni captaincy was handed to R. Yu. In the lead, Ungheni adjusted their style of play with 75 minutes gone. After a short break after 76 minutes, Ungheni seemed to change their tactical approach a bit. The Ungheni coach was visibly pleased with the score so far, but still ordered a few tactical changes 76 minutes into the game. After 79 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and G. Bogaert gave the Ungheni supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 3 - 1. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Speranta, with 56 percent of the ball.

Ungheni's top performer was clearly G. Bogaert. R. de Bont was a disappointment, however. The most dominating Speranta player was without a doubt G. Brun. On the other hand, L. Cambet's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 1.