Olympique Kick
Pan Punishment
Morocco's Olympique Khouribga counterattacked their way to a 3-3 draw at full time against the Birds, before prevailing on penalties at The Cooking Pot. The Casablanca side's undisputed Man of the Match was Chinese forward Pan Jielun, who struck the opener, the last-gasp game-tier, and finally the winning spot kick.
With there being no question as to how the sides would set up, spectators waited for and got a classic siege. Olympique's strengths this time were on their versatile wingbacks, with Greek left-sider Christos Fintanopoulos given the responsibility of launching many a break.
Of course, with the visitors playing so deep, they would always have to yield some openings, and after nine minutes Fanis Asproudis' impatience allowed
Djan Bacelar a peek in. Attempting to kickstart something, Asproudis turned his way into danger, but fortunately for him Bacelar could not get past Jean-Luc Bonnet.
A painful-looking tangle involving Rudi Dijkens and
Ling Fuquan later,
Leong Wan Kang finally got an open look, but pitched it narrowly wide. This attempt gave Olympique the space they needed, and once Jorge Saseta got his quick goal-kick to where Jielun wanted, a goal was the likely outcome.
Dijkens then hit the woodwork on another counter, before
Hilal Bakhtiar equalised as the Birds returned the ball straight down the other end. Skipper
Tian Yonghang has been going from strength to strength in recent months, and he demonstrated the ability to break down defences near single-handedly in the 36th minute, with some very intelligent dribbling, before scoring.
Olympique's reshuffling of some players' positions prompted Grilled to eagerly test their new configuration, but after close shaves from Tian and Leong, it was the visitors who profited. Again, it was a ball out from the area, this time a long throw, and Fanis Asproudis was off and away after
Hilal Bakhtiar stepped up an instant too late to spring the offside trap.
Rashid bin Ahmad tried to recover, but arrived just as Asproudis thrashed his shot past
Dan Seng.
Bakhtiar was replaced by
Joan Cisquell after an indifferent showing, and the Spanish veteran was quickly involved in a potentially game-changing incident. He was sticking close to Hans-Heinrich Wopienka inside the area, when the Olympique player suddenly fell over after what looked by a nudge. Referee Gerbrand Drent was not convinced, and gave a protesting Wopienka a yellow card as Cisquell badgered him to pick himself up.
Pompeo Bellamoli then appeared to have won it for the Birds after feeding on a cross by the surprisingly-subdued Wong. Confident that they would be able to see the final minutes out,
Rashid bin Ahmad and
Djan Bacelar came off for
Colby Awyong and
Remco van der Ban... and Pan Jielun was there to show Grilled the error of their ways by splitting the defence to level the scores once more with three minutes remaining.
Drawn into extra time, the Birds came closest to breaking the impasse when
Wong Ping Shun lifted a free-kick over, and only
Leong Wan Kang scored for them in the ensuing shootout. Christos Fintanopoulos and Pan however found the net with Olympique's first two tries, for them to claim the win.
