Official Cup

Babbis Chatzios DPLD
Spectators: 2571 (Terracing: 1929, Seating: 591, VIP seats: 51) Dark clouds were building up when the players entered the field. None of the them looked very eager to play. Charis Mantalakis started the match with the kick off. Damiano Battisti stood for a superb save when he managed to get hold of Charis Mantalakis's shot from short distance in the 4th minute. Thanasis Vrasidas showed brilliant goalkeeper skills when he caught the ball after a hard shot from Amedeo Moriggi in the 5th minute of the match. Damiano Battisti was in the perfect position, and the defense had done a good job marking him, but Isidoros Tsioris showcased his skills and made a perfect shot to score 1-0 in the 7 minute of play. After a rather tough play, Mean Machine's Ermis Xintarianos got a free kick in the 11th minute. After a rather tough play, Mean Machine's Lazaros Kouros got a free kick in the 14th minute. An unexpectedly hard shot by Amedeo Moriggi in the 18th minute of play forced Mean Machine's goalkeeper Thanasis Vrasidas to throw himself to the left, to be able to save the ball. In the 30th minute Eurospeed Asti were awarded a corner. Fausto Pinti went to the cornerflag to take it. Amedeo Moriggi hit a great freekick 33 minutes into the match. Thanasis Vrasidas showed brilliant goalkeeper skills when he caught the ball after a hard shot from Grant Irø in the 35th minute of the match. Thanasis Vrasidas didn't have a chance when a screaming shot from Fausto Pinti went, in the 37th minute, to the upper right corner, 1-1 was the resulting score. Thanasis Vrasidas showed brilliant goalkeeper skills when he caught the ball after a hard shot from Grant Irø in the 40th minute of the match. The referee felt a red card was in order, 40 minutes into the game, when Ermis Xintarianos put in a rough tackle. The referee blew the whistle for a penalty in the 40th minute of the game. One of Mean Machine:s players had nearly got his shirt torn off by an opponent while getting free in front of Eurospeed Asti:s goal. The referee gave Eurospeed Asti a penalty, 42 minutes into the game. The penalty shot was made by Fausto Pinti, who made a well placed shot into the net to the right of Mean Machine's Thanasis Vrasidas. 1-2. Thanasis Vrasidas showed brilliant goalkeeper skills when he caught the ball after a hard shot from Grant Irø in the 44th minute of the match. Charis Mantalakis hit a great freekick 46 minutes into the match. In the 46th minute Fausto Pinti shot on, it seemed, an open goal, but Thanasis Vrasidas saw the ball coming and threw himself on it before it passed the goal line. The crowd was extremely unhappy with the home team's performance in the first half. They were losing 1-2.

When the second half was about to start, both teams quickly lined up and Fausto Pinti made a kick off. Thanasis Vrasidas took care of the ball after a well-directed shot from Grant Irø, even though the ball almost passed him on his left side. After 58 minutes, Christian Mattei mouthed his way into the referee's book. The tension between the Mean Machine and the Eurospeed Asti players grew even worse after the yellow card. After a rather tough play, Mean Machine's Christian Mattei got a free kick in the 58th minute. Damiano Battisti showed his good apprehension of the play when he made a fantastic save on a shot from Nikos Nikitaras, who was totally free with the ball in the 60th minute. In the 64th minute, Manolis Kioupouroglou hit a crossing free kick to the open man running down the field. In the 69th minute Miltiadis Poursaitidis shot on, it seemed, an open goal, but Damiano Battisti saw the ball coming and threw himself on it before it passed the goal line. Christian Mattei fired away a screaming shot towards the goal in the 71st minute, but the shot went just over the crossbar without Damiano Battisti having to interfere. After 73 played minutes Mean Machine got a freekick which was hit by Nikos Nikitaras. Mean Machine's Manolis Kioupouroglou managed, thanks to a brazen rush, stole the ball on a throw-in made by Federico Chiesa in the 77 minute of the game. In the 80th minute, Miltiadis Poursaitidis left the goalkeeper for dead before tapping the ball into the right side of the net. The Mean Machine fans were clearly happy with the effort and the scoreboard reflected the new score: 3-3. Thanasis Vrasidas showed brilliant goalkeeper skills when he caught the ball after a hard shot from Fausto Pinti in the 88th minute of the match. 89 minutes had been played when some careless play by Mean Machine's defense caused the ball to cross the line for a corner. Fausto Pinti was slow to take the kick. During this time Eurospeed Asti's players had a chance to rest.

All the players looked a little tired when it was time for the first half of the overtime. It was Mean Machine's Nikos Nikitaras that got to make the kick off. The audience was convinced that Fausto Pinti's extremely hard shot when he got free in front of the goal was going in, but Thanasis Vrasidas was relentless in the 100th minute of the game. Miltiadis Poursaitidis received a nice pass in the box and took a hard shot in the 103rd minute. Damiano Battisti tensed up and prepared to dive, but the shot went over the goal with him having to interfere.

Everyone could clearly see that both Eurospeed Asti's and Mean Machine's players was becoming tired in their legs when Eurospeed Asti's Fausto Pinti did the kick off in the second half of the overtime. Fausto Pinti sent away a hard shot on goal in the 116th minute, but the ball went just over the crossbar and out. A very good chance. An unexpectedly hard shot by Elia Pietrantoni in the 118th minute of play forced Mean Machine's goalkeeper Thanasis Vrasidas to throw himself to the left, to be able to save the ball. 118 minutes into the game, Eurospeed Asti's Elia Pietrantoni nearly tore a hole in the net with a booming shot. Thanasis Vrasidas made a valiant effort, but he could not reach the ball in time, 3-4. The Eurospeed Asti players were relieved to hear the final whistle blow to end the match. The away crowd was happy to see their team win after a very tight game.