FC Lugano rounded off their training camp in Germany with a convincing victory over FC Heidenheim; the bianconeri are set to leave the Allgäu region tomorrow (Saturday 11 July) following a final training session at the Tannenhof Resort Sport & Spa, the hotel complex that has been hosting them since 5 July.
For Croci-Torti’s men, Daniel Dos Santos found the net in the second half, with a finish set up by a back-heel assist from Uran Bislimi. It was a deserved victory, on the whole, for Steffen and his team-mates, who had come close to scoring several times in the first half, notably through Dereck Moncada (on three occasions, set up by captain Steffen) and Yanis Cimignani, who found the net with a header but was flagged offside by the match officials.
As mentioned, it was in the second half (with Papadapoulos and Dos Santos coming on straight away) that Lugano put the deserved seal on a victory they had sought and secured thanks to Dos Santos’s goal. The lead was then managed with relative ease by a team whose line-up had been completely overhauled (with virtually the entire squad at Croci-Torti’s disposal taking to the pitch) but which remained compact and very much on the ball, as the manager rightly pointed out, expressing his satisfaction with his players’ performance at the end of the match.
FC Lugano: Von Ballmoos; Bichsel, Mai, Zanotti; Cimignani, Bislimi, Grgic, Alioski; Steffen, Moncada; Behrens. From the 65th minute: Geghardt, Papadopoulos, Carbone, Kelvin, Ajidin, Kendouci, Beckham, Dos Sanstos; Koutsias. Puddu and Parente also came on from the 80th minute.