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Vukota Heads On
Domenik Bögengang scored for the third league game in a row as
Lin Jungui made a productive debut as part of Grilled's two-man backline. Luxembourg midfielder
Erik Back however had his game cut short after an unfortunate accident in the first half, leaving
Niculae Stanca to make his sixth appearance of the season.
Facing a seluraralc side which had just picked up its first league win, the Birds saw a need to make full use of their home ground advantage, and had their stacked midfield go for the jugular from the start.
Erik Back slipped through in just the second minute, with
Chow Ying Lee providing the last pass, but the visitors' goalie Chua Puay Ming was down in a flash to block it.
Back kept his head up both figuratively and literally, and was absolved three minutes later as he dropped a chipped cross right on
Vukota Crkvenjakov's head. The fullback had scored twice in his first four appearances, then gone dry in the 33 after that, but this was his day as the fading header made it past the goalline.
Calmed by the goal under their belt, Grilled began holding the ball more as they adopted a more patient approach, and the pace of the match slowed dramatically. The temperature began to rise again after they managed some sharp forward passes in the 30th minute, and after the red-hot Bögengang sliced by the last man, there was only going to be one outcome: 2-0.
Grilled's joy was short-lived, though not through any deed of the visitors, as
Erik Back slammed his face into a teammate's shoulder as both went to defend the same aerial ball. His nose was a right mess after that, and the coach had no hesitation in letting Stanca fill in.
Inspiration that he may be, Stanca's limitations were obvious, and the dangerous runs down the right were replaced by conservative square passes back inside. Despite that, Grilled were very much in the ascendancy, and stretched their lead further after some opportunism by
Gleb Dorogan.
seluraralc coach Aymeric Guillon decided that enough was enough, and pulled veteran skipper Bruno Brandão off, hoping to shock his team into action. Brandão had scored in both seluraralc's previous victories against the Birds, something which was not likely to happen today, being three down with half an hour remaining.
The visitors were in fact fortunate not to fall further behind, as all three of Grilled's strikers took turns to strike the crossbar with power, a rare hat-trick that none of them wanted.
With ten minutes to go,
Lin Jungui, who did not have too much to do but did it well, was subbed off for
Ronny Behr. The two competitors for the same position greeted each other with a perfunctory handshake without eye contact, which does not bode well for the dressing room.
Bögengang then lightened up the atmosphere with a brilliant reflex strike after the ball was deflected at speed into his path, but Chua Puay Ming was up to it, and got a leg out to deny the German forward another multi-goal outing.
