Challenge

POLITEHNICA IASI
Spectators: 40 (Terracing: 31, Seating: 9, VIP seats: 0) Dark clouds were building up when the players entered the field. None of the them looked very eager to play. Sandro Galishoff started the match with the kick off. After a rather tough play, Poli Iași's Adrian Elian got a free kick in the 7th minute. Olimpiu Florean made in the 13th minute of the game a throw-in that took a bad bounce and was taken care of by Austria's Marc Kronecker. With his leg Fabio Auer managed to avoid a goal in the 15thth minute, when Poli Iași's Remus Nuțu fired away a shot with a lot of spin towards his right hand side. Nicu Timofte made a wonderful reflex save on a shot from Jonas Nalder in the 18th minute of play. 22 minutes into the match, Sandro Galishoff notched a goal, 0-1, to the right of Poli Iași's Nicu Timofte. Nicu Timofte was clearly disgusted with the effort of the defense and let the defenders know about it. The supporters of Poli Iași booed when Austria was adjudged a doubtful freekick after 24 match minutes in a wonderful position. Christian Wallner didn't get a good kick on the ball. A collision led to Poli Iași getting a freekick after 28 minutes play. Horaţiu Buciuman hit a great ball. Nicu Timofte made a wonderful reflex save on a shot from Fabio Schneider in the 35th minute of play. Fabio Schneider took the ball and in the 41 minute, shot a rapid shot to the right of a surprised Nicu Timofte. Nicu Timofte dived to the right, and did manage to get a hand on the shot, but it still went into the right corner making it 0-2. If Jonas Nalder had kept his shot down it would have been a goal in the 47th minute. The ball went over the crossbar and out instead. Luck had favoured the away team in the first, and they walked off with a 0-2 lead.

The players of the home team were most fresh-looking when they entered the field to play the second half. Remus Nuțu was the one to do the kick off. Sandro Galishoff scored 0-3 in the 52nd match minute with a shot that went into the goal to the right of Nicu Timofte, who was just a little too slow in reacting to the shot. Sandro Galishoff fired away a screaming shot towards the goal in the 58th minute, but the shot went just over the crossbar without Nicu Timofte having to interfere. Fabio Auer made a wonderful reflex save on a shot from Remus Nuțu in the 60th minute of play. In the 61st minute, Marvin Harrer hit a crossing free kick to the open man running down the field. After a rather tough play, Austria's Fabio Schneider got a free kick in the 62nd minute. After 63 played minutes, Poli Iași's Horaţiu Buciuman shot from a long distance, and at first it looked like the ball was going into the goal, but the goalkeeper Fabio Auer came through and got his fingers on the ball before it flew over the goal line. He then quickly gripped the ball tighter before the forwards in Poli Iași reached it. If Leonhard Maier had kept his shot down it would have been a goal in the 64th minute. The ball went over the crossbar and out instead. George Baldu hit a great freekick 65 minutes into the match. Poli Iași's Nicu Timofte proved his good apprehension of play when he, in the 73rd minute of the match, managed to save Poli Iași from getting a goal against them. Sandro Galishoff recieved an excellent pass in front of the goal in the 75th minute. Unfortunately, he received the ball on his off foot and could only manage a weak shot that went over the goal. After 78 minutes, Olimpiu Florean mouthed his way into the referee's book. The tension between the Poli Iași and the Austria players grew even worse after the yellow card. After 79 played minutes Poli Iași got a freekick which was hit by Olimpiu Florean. When the match had gone on for 83 minutes, Remus Nuțu put it in 1-3 from a short distance just to the right of Fabio Auer. After 85 played minutes Poli Iași got a freekick which was hit by Irinel Onișoru. The audience was convinced that Remus Nuțu's extremely hard shot when he got free in front of the goal was going in, but Fabio Auer was relentless in the 93rd minute of the game. Fabio Auer showed his good apprehension of the play when he made a fantastic save on a shot from Remus Nuțu, who was totally free with the ball in the 94th minute. In the 95th minute Remus Nuțu shot on, it seemed, an open goal, but Fabio Auer saw the ball coming and threw himself on it before it passed the goal line. The Austria supporters could be heard counting down the last seconds of the match. They errupted in celebration when the whistle blew, knowing Austria would go home with victory in their luggage after a match that easily could have ended differently.