FLORENCE, Italy – The Montreal Impact defeated ACF Fiorentina’s reserve side 4-1 Tuesday at the Centro Tecnico de Coverciano, in Florence, Italy. Mircea Ilcu, Zakaria Messoudi and Oussama Essabr scored in the victory.
Ilcu opened the scoring in the 25th minute when defender Dennis Iapichino played a cross from deep down the left flank to the Academy forward waiting far post, just outside the six-yard box. The U21 forward finished the play with a low shot towards the opposite corner.
Then a couple of minutes later, forward Andrew Wenger attempted to play a low cross through the box, but a Fiorentina defender deflected the ball into its net.
Impact U21 midfielder Zakaria Messoudi put the Impact up for good in the 55th minute when he finished a cross from deep down the right flank by defender Zarek Valentin, who found Messoudi near the penalty spot. The midfielder hammered a low, one-timer to the short post.
The home team came back with a goal in the 69th with a long-range shot that beat U21 goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, but trialist Oussama Essabr restored the three-goal lead four minutes later (73rd minute) pouncing on a loose ball in the box.
Crépeau came up with two big saves in the 79th minute, first when he came out of his box to cut off a breakaway pass, and then diving to his right to save a shot off of a through ball seconds later.
All five of the Impact Academy players started for the Impact, while central defender Jeb Brovsky wore the captain’s armband for the contest.
The two teams played two 40-minutes halves.
Impact Lineup
MTL: GK – Maxime Crépeau; D – Dennis Iapichino (Cornelio Bem* 45’), Jeb Brovsky (Nicolas Cordova* 60’), Karl W. Ouimette, Zarek Valentin; M – Zakaria Messoudi (Lamar Neagle 69’), Bryan Arguez, Wandrille Lefevre, Maxime Tissot; F – Andrew Wenger (Oussama Essabr 46’), Mircea Ilcu* (Justin Mapp 69’)
Substitute not used: Evan Bush
* Impact U21 player
** Player on tryout
Goals
MTL - Ilcu (Iapichino) 25'
MTL – Own goal 27’
MTL - Messoudi (Valentin) 55'
FIO - 69'
MTL - Essabr 73'
