UD Fuerteventura v Universidad

All the talk before this game was about how UD Fuerteventura would cope with the power of Universidad's front line. The previous week the football world had also been saddened by the untimely death of Antonio Puerta, the 22-year-old Sevilla midfielder who collapsed on the field during a Spanish league match against Getafe on Aug. 25, and died three days later in a hospital after suffering multiple cardiac arrests. Before the game the players of both sides and their fans paid their respects with a minutes silence.

The visitors cam with a record of having finished in the top four of the division in all but one of the last five or six seasons and as such were expected to provide some kind of benchmark as to the standard that would be required to do well this season. Fuerteventura started the game in a lively fashion, employing the simple tactic of getting the ball and then not giving it away. They carved out several openings during the first half and the visiting keeper had to make a couple of saves from well-struck efforts from about twelve yards. Just before half time he was called into action again as Moises struck a powerful shot from just inside the right hand side of the penalty area. The keeper managed to palm the ball onto the far post, but when the ball rebounded to Molina, who was under pressure from Memo, the ball hit him and went into his own net.

Universidad came out in the second half looking to get back onto terms as quickly as possible and even though they had more of the ball, and won a series of corners, they were unable to create a decent goal scoring opportunity. As the game wore on Fuerteventura again came back into it and towards the end looked most likely to score.

This was a consecutive 1-0 victory in which Fuerteventura scored in the first half and defended well throughout the game. Both sides they have faced had large front players who might have been expected to trouble the UD defence, but on both occasions the defence were well up to the task of nullifying the opposition attack. If these early season performances are a taste of what is to come then the fans of Fuerteventura can expect to enjoy their Sunday's.

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UD Fuerteventura v Universidad

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