STEAUA 3 - 4 Zenk (378207651)

1198 spectators had come to FC STEAUA 12 this cloudy day. Davide Lotito was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Antonio Puerta and Samuel Andreasson. STEAUA tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Radhouani - Rabeder, Žitlinskis, Sobral, Passin - Alupoaei, Biegstraaten, Cilian, Schytz - Benslimane, Boise.

Zenk decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. They fielded: Lafage - Vincelot, Delort, Heuser, Pinget - Di Massimo, Kelly, El-Ibrahim, Cipriano - Panov, Zagari.

Zenk demonstrated their creative tactics on the field. Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 8 minutes into the match left Zenk's I. Panov completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. No matter how hard he tried, R. Biegstraaten just couldn't get his shot past the visitors' right side defence after 9 minutes. Had it not been for one of the home defenders, A. Zagari would have put Zenk up another goal 15 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. 31 minutes in, Zenk's A. Zagari received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Some fine movement on the left led to a Zenk goal after 34 minutes, making it 0 - 2. V. Cipriano was noted down as the scorer. STEAUA made it 1 - 2 as R. Passin got a touch to the floated corner kick and flicked the ball to A. Cilian who whipped a low drive in off the far post. The visitors' V. Cipriano took advantage of a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and centre backs 36 minutes into the match. 1 - 3 for Zenk. After this, you could see that the players of Zenk were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. It was 1 - 3 at the break. Possession in this half belonged to Zenk, who controlled the ball 56 percent of the time.

A marvellous STEAUA effort on the right-hand side resulted in a goal after 72 minutes by F. Boise, making the score 2 - 3. With 78 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed I. Panov of Zenk to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 2 - 4. STEAUA reduced the lead to 3 - 4 with 87 minutes on the clock when S. Benslimane got the best of a ball floated in from the left. This part of the game was a standoff between the teams in terms of possession.

STEAUA's best player was L. Alupoaei. On the other hand, R. Sobral's play was disheartening. A. Zagari performed admirably for Zenk. P. Pinget was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 4.