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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 59 | W | 5 - 0 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 57 | W | 4 - 0 | Friendly |
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Bun Time
Panzarino Overtakes
Farmer Bunnies suggested that Grilled Birds might not be the premier club of the Grilled stable any longer, as they defeated their nominal senior affiliate 2-1 in a tournament clash that all involved took seriously, by every appearance. In the Birds' defence, it came in their time of rebuilding, but the way the Bunnies kept them out for almost all of the game showed just how far the latter had come.
It was unashamedly a battle of attack versus defence, and any worried that the teams might have colluded to advance their respective causes in The Global Trophy were swiftly dispelled, as Grilled pressed the tempo from the get-go.
Islom Davlatov grabbed attention with his unbridled aggression here, and for a brief time, it seemed as if the vaunted Bunnies defence might not be able to cope.
That didn't last, and
Aswad Mohd Jafni took the measure of Davlatov with a clever cut-in to preempt his reception, in the fifteenth minute. Not having made a go of their own up until now, Farmer Bunnies broke with great pace down the right side, and
Valentin Batâr might have been in trouble had
Wong Ting Yew maintained his balance on the final run-up.
Grilled struggled to create, and their single standout chance of the half came in the 22nd minute, after the impressive
Florus Romijn turned first Wong, and then
Brendan Leung, with quick cutting motions.
Cyril Künzler's excellent curler was tipped over by
Vivian Grubenmann, however, and it would be the Buns who scored first, through
Enzo Paolo Panzarino's superb free-kick strike into the top corner, right after the half-hour. They might even have had another shortly after, but
Yuki Irie just about cleared with his head, as Panzarino put it to the back post.
Seldom has a team achieved near eighty percent of the possession while looking so impotent, but the Birds could do little about that; they might have taken it to the Buns, had they retained a strikeforce on par with their classic configuration of Mohd Safri, Chow and Tian in their pomp, but sadly they had nothing to compare with that as of the moment.
Chu Xin Lee had his moments, but it remained clear that he, as with
Moey Xin Seng, was primarily a midfielder being played out of position.
To top it off, the Bunnies looked quite a bit more assured when their turn to push forward came, and the sight of them working the ball methodically upfield might have given
Djan Bacelar real pause. A tidy foray led by
Tham Leng Teck down the right developed into a serious threat, and
Valentin Batâr had to be on his toes, to tip
Sofian Azfar's intuitive volley over.
Azfar would not be denied three minutes later, though, as Bunnies laid a rapid counterattack on down the opposite flank, after Moey had been smothered by
Vishnu Tallapaka, in trying to swivel his way out of a sticky spot. The referee wasn't interested in his entreaties, and
Kwek Yun Jie put Sofian through with the early cross, for 2-0.
It was going all so smoothly for the Farmer Bunnies at this point, and Grilled seemed cooked as a very fit-looking
Abderahim Bentellis replaced Panzarino in the 75th minute. Surprisingly, it would be the Birds who would score immediately afterwards, with Moey convincing all and sundry with his fall in the box this time around.
Cyril Künzler's penalty take was close to perfect, and even
Vivian Grubenmann had no chance.
They then very nearly levelled as Künzler rode the adrenaline to surge free on the right side on their next possession, with practised former youth international
Lau Chang Wan blown away by Künzler's effective straight-on running.
Islom Davlatov applied a fine finishing touch as the defenders herded Chu aside, but he could beat only the goalkeeper, and not the post.
It would then swing the other way, as
Vishnu Tallapaka mixed it up with an unorthodox free-kick placed dead ahead, but the Grilled wall wasn't about to be taken in by that. Davlatov and Chu were then taken off for
Tian Yonghang and
Kalki Parvathaneni, in an effort to find an equaliser in the last ten minutes, but if there was one thing the Bunnies were good at, it was holding firm.
