Bari 3 - 0 blaauwtjes (374677749)

A scorching day at Pirola, where 32435 spectators were in place for today's match. Fabrice Merrien was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Rares Cârstea and Rodolfo Papini. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Bari. Lineup: Rossi - Tenno, van Doorneveld, van der Felz - Mendels, Westra, Orleans Borbón, Heideman - Blom, Haj-Akil, Davidse.

blaauwtjes tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Goos - Zammuner, Klintdahl, Vanossi, Laman - Gorostidi, Vesalainen, Barnils, Slama - Arnáez, Coviello.

Bari saw most attack opportunities on the wings. Several players seemed a little dazed by the warm weather, and were repeatedly tricked by the clever and agile M. Arnáez. With 12 minutes played, Bari's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to F. Blom he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 1 - 0. An equalising goal seemed certain after 15 minutes when T. Gorostidi attacked down the left wing, but O. Rossi just managed to make a save to keep the ball out of the net. Bari put themselves up 2 - 0 when R. Westra broke through on the right, leaving the entire defence trailing in his wake. H. van Doorneveld struck a 30 metre free kick home 36 minutes into the match. 3 - 0 for the home team. It was 3 - 0 at the break. blaauwtjes claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 51 percent.

Content with how the game was proceeding, the Bari coach let R. Hoffman replace F. Haj-Akil after 60 minutes. Bari put in a good effort on the right, but F. Mendels saw his volley fly wide of the mark 77 minutes into the game. Possession was split evenly between the teams.

Bari's top performer was clearly E. Heideman. On the other hand, R. Hoffman's play was disheartening. P. Vesalainen performed admirably for blaauwtjes. F. Coviello turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 3 - 0.