Monticello 4 - 1 Santa (391720215)

21501 spectators had come to San Liro this cloudy day. Riccardo Rizzo was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Tomas González and Emmanuel Dessa. Fans of both teams had been eagerly awaiting this Panama derby and were doing their best to outshout their opponents. Monticello decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Guillot - Rubio, Rušev, Hassink - Hámori, de Ruyter, Aoi, Spaans, Beard - Bujnicki, Csont.

Santa tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players took the field: Marques - Lyubenov, Mauroux, Sancese, Mouré - Wicklmayr, Öhblad, Rei, Yöntem - Pottiau, De Smet.

It was an obvious ambition of Santa to use their ability at attacking on the flanks. With 8 minutes played, the home side managed to get a 1 - 0 lead as M. Csont flipped the ball in after a cross from the right. Coming from the right, M. Rušev almost managed to score another goal for Monticello, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave F. Mauroux from Santa a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 15 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! After a savage shot that could only be parried by the keeper, B. Bujnicki demonstrated his experience by being in just the right place to slot home the rebound. His goal for Monticello 33 minutes into the match made the score 2 - 0. After 35 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by A. Rubio might have resulted in another goal for Monticello. However, E. Marques made a spectacular save. The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 0. Monticello had most of the ball, with 66 percent of possession.

With 50 minutes played, Monticello put themselves up 3 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to P. Spaans, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. M. Csont squirmed through their central defence after 71 minutes, increasing the lead to 4 - 0. The players of Monticello now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Santa fought on and, after 74 minutes, F. De Smet was able to reduce the deficit to 4 - 1 after some excellent moves on the right side were finished off with an incredibly clever chip. Monticello claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 58 percent.

The most dominating Monticello player was without a doubt E. de Ruyter. C. Hámori on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Santa player was Y. Pottiau. On the other hand, E. Marques's play was disheartening. The match ends 4 - 1.