Grilled were unceremoniously dumped out of the Cup by Golden Kakis, who leveraged the Birds' poor defensive nous to turn what should have been a hair-raising curtain-closer into a damp squib. Head coach Niculae Stanca was noticeably furious at the side, and was seen turning his back on his players as they trudged off after the final whiste.

It started all so promisingly for Grilled, who were injury and suspension free for once, and fielded much their strongest side. They hemmed the Kakis in their own defensive third at the beginning, and broke through in the eighth minute with Abdul bin Jantan snatching up a second chance effort after Chow Ying Lee's glanced header was blocked by a defender standing on the line. The speed of the backheel caught everybody unaware, to the delight of the travelling fans.

Kakis, unbeaten for eight games entering the match, responded with a flash of brilliance from Joël Smeijers, who curled the equaliser past an unsighted Stacey from outside the area. Grilled were still comfortably in control despite that setback, and only Zhu Changchun will know how he managed not to score after magically swivelling around Peng Kunquan in the 24th minute, sidefooting right at the goalkeeper. All was well five minutes later, when Tian Yonghang hopped by and lobbed Beltramme to restore the lead.

Although Alcino Mendes shuffled a second equaliser in early in the second half to a huge response from the Kakis fans, it wasn't taken all that seriously by the Grilled contingent, understandably as the Birds were still moving the ball around with purpose. They began to get worried as the hosts managed to steer Grilled's attacks aside time and again, however, and it all came to a head when veteran midfielder Dinesh-Chandra Ram found space behind Lin Jungui and kept his concentration up to find a gap between Stacey and his near post.

Unable to believe that his team was behind, Stanca was expressionless as he ordered Alex Fonseca on for bin Jantan in the 70th minute, and his Kakis counterpart Christopher Davies followed suit in taking a goalscorer off, with Ram making way for Mo Meng Seng. Stanca appeared to get the better of this particular tactical duel as Zhu Changchun kept his wits about him when Raimondo Willi's scuffed clearance dropped behind him in the 80th minute, and he took a step back before blasting it into the roof of the net.

Grilled seemed to have captured all the initiative at this point, and they pressed forward with confidence, until the double substitution of Slavcho Tzonkov and Zhu Changchun for Walter Ross and Yvan Lefébure in the 85th minute. The two had barely gotten onto the pitch, when Peng lumped a glorious through ball down the middle. The Grilled newcomers were caught napping as Joël Smeijers ran through, and their weak offside appeals were waved off as the Belgian calmly drew Stacey wide before clipping in his second of the day.

The Birds still had a chance, but showed no signs of believing that, given the way that nobody picked Zhong Aik Yun up when he darted into the box two minutes later. Jungui and Ross were left pointing fingers at each other while Stacey screamed at them both, after Smeijers' cross swung narrowly between the two defenders, who barely made an effort to reach it. None of them pretended to care when Francesco Marasco dribbled through to make it 6-3 in the 89th minute, except perhaps Seytek Djekshenkulov, who vented his disappointment with a nasty shoulder barge and got a yellow card.