Grilled 6 - 0 MarinaBay
Clouds darkened the skies at
Love Street Stadium as 15836 spectators turned up for the match.
Mahmoud Arafat was the appointed referee with assistance provided by
Piercarlo Mannari and
Arian Meitner. The match took place on neutral ground. Grilled's lineup was:
Germanakos -
Chuan Yong,
Hutter -
Ferzan,
Kwang Tse,
Keng Chuan,
Teck Fu,
Trindade -
Balde,
Ze Han,
Chitre.
The following players had been chosen by MarinaBay:
Ping -
Kumar,
Lukman,
Roslan -
Borja,
Training,
Umar,
Ho -
Ha,
Chin Yeng,
Wai Wan.
The teams had chosen different formations for the match. Home team Grilled Birds went for 2-5-3 while FC The Sail @ MarinaBay has decided to play a 3-4-3 lineup. Pressing was the tactic of the day for MarinaBay, taking advantage of their solid (7) level with that tactic. With 13 minutes played, the home side managed to get a 1 - 0 lead as
Ibnou Balde flipped the ball in after a cross from the right. 20 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as
Damian Hutter broke through, making the score 2 - 0 for Grilled. Things were going to get worse for the visitors.
Chia Kwang Tse squirmed through their central defence after 34 minutes, increasing the lead to 3 - 0. After 38 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and
Gandhik Chitre gave the Grilled supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 0. Grilled's
Damian Hutter showed off his trademark ability to do the unexpected with a tricky pass after 40 minutes. Unfortunately,
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan was startled by the play and wasn't able to control the finish. With 42 minutes played,
Chan Ze Han could have brought this one home for Grilled as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. 4 - 0 was the halftime score. Grilled claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 73 percent.
After 46 minutes, the Grilled coach wanted to see a new face on the pitch, waving
Teo Chuan Yong off the field.
Radovan Jaška took his place.
Teo Chuan Yong was coming off, and had placed his last free kick for the day. That meant that
Chan Ze Han got the chance to showcase his dead ball skills. Grilled solidified their lead at the 48 minute mark, as
Gandhik Chitre dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 5 - 0. Having been awarded a free kick in an awkward position after 54 minutes, Grilled did not go for a shot but instead fired the ball hard into the 6 yard box. After a brief tussle with his marker,
Gandhik Chitre was able to power the ball past the keeper to make the score 6 - 0. That made three goals for
Gandhik Chitre and he was marked down for the hat trick. Grilled's
Chan Ze Han saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 62 minutes. Coming from the right,
Radovan Jaška almost managed to score another goal for Grilled, but his header was tipped over the bar by the visitors' keeper.
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan had a fantastic opportunity to put Grilled up another goal 72 minutes into the match after a pass through the middle set him free, but he fired just over the crossbar. 75 minutes into the match, the referee signalled for a Grilled substitution.
Phua Ming Xin came on for
Chan Ze Han. As
Chan Ze Han left the field, the coach signaled to
Radovan Jaška to be the new set pieces taker. As the captain was no longer on the pitch,
Hwang Teck Fu took over the role of being the Grilled captain. The Grilled players could smell victory in the air.
Gandhik Chitre wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for
Mohsen El Khateeb after 88 minutes. It was announced by the referee that he estimated stoppage time to be around 1 minute. This meant there could still be an extra attack or two left in the match! The match ends 6 - 0. Grilled had most of the ball, with 73 percent of possession.
Most important Grilled player was
Aw Keng Chuan. On the other hand,
Mohsen El Khateeb's play was disheartening. MarinaBay's top performer was clearly
Anuar Umar. However,
Ryan Ha made a disastrous appearance.