Haskovo 0 - 5 Steaua (392034807)

17605 punters turned up at Tsar Kiro Arena, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. Jens Söderberg was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Viggo Agle and Jesús Requena. Haskovo started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Harry - Apotefromenos, Fèvre, Postolovski, Deloumeaux - Pfeilsticker, Arets, Tamelli, Hussi, Vesanto - Khalil.

Steaua had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Leclercq - Frechilla, Hack, de Wit - Sanda, Puistovaara, Jory, Serqueira, Matei - Zerri, Pérez de Lara.

N. Apotefromenos behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 11 minutes as he gave the ball away to I. Matei. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. 19 minutes of the match played, and a comedy of errors by the home side gave the visitors a chance at the lead, but V. Pérez de Lara, after finding himself dashing down on goal from the left with only the keeper to beat, sliced his shot horribly wide. After 30 minutes, C. Jory sent the corner kick right to I. Matei who headed it sharply past the keeper. 0 - 1! 32 minutes into the match, the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 2 as H. de Wit finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. After 41 minutes, a mistake by the home side's left defence allowed H. Puistovaara to get through. He outclassed the home side's keeper, adding another goal for the visitors. 0 - 3. By now, the players in Steaua felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. With the clock showing 44 minutes played, a great pass from the defensive line of Steaua resulted in a counterattack that was smoothly brought under control by C. Jory in the centre of the opposition's penalty area, but his finish went high. Proving his experience, V. Pérez de Lara scored 0 - 4 for Steaua after putting some pressure on the opposing defence at a critical moment. 0 - 4 was the halftime score. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Steaua, with 53 percent of the ball.

With the scoreboard showing that 54 minutes had been played, Steaua nearly put themselves up another goal after Z. Serqueira came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. H. de Wit received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 64 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 5. The Steaua fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. Steaua enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession.

Most important Haskovo player was J. Harry. J. Vesanto on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Steaua player was without a doubt F. Leclercq. On the other hand, G. Zerri's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 5.