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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 73 | L | 5 - 1 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Final Exorcism
Panigrahi Sinks Zanzibar
Grilled Birds saw off current Zanzibian Premier League leaders Zanzibar Devils, having come out on top of this clash of fellow three-time national cup champions thanks to
Bhavya Panigrahi's late winner. This would be a stop-start business, going from a definite-if-not-dull stalemate to a sudden five goals, only as the first half came to an end.
Zanzibar kicked off in their famous yellow and blue, and it was difficult not to recognize the similarities between their style of play, and Grilled's classic 2-5-3 formation. The main deviance would be their even-greater emphasis on attack, and a corresponding compartmentalization of their midfield - not that stars like Béla Pintér and Didier Prévost weren't capable of handling it on their own. Still, this might ultimately have been what tipped the scales against them.
Opportunities would be relatively hard to come by early on, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun's attempted curler, off
Heng Dong Chu's first-time cross in the fourth minute, as good as it got for Grilled until their opening goal. The Devils would pick up the pace gradually, with team captain and former Polish youth international Wacław Włodarczak increasingly involved.
Massoud Dob would make his first save - off Flemming Eriksen's stretching toepoke - in the 21st minute, and Didier Prévost would then be caught napping as Salvador Portabales laid it on a plate for him just before the half-hour mark.
It was next to unthinkable that this match would finish goalless, given how these sides worked, and the breakthrough would arrive in the 39th as Portabales worked his way past
Cyril Künzler once more; the Zanzibar front three were ready and waiting as Portables breezed along the endline, and the short pass went to Eriksen. The forward would still have
Yuta Nakakita to beat, which he achieved with the barest of hip fakes, before drilling it past Dob.
This development cast off any remaining veil of pretense that the teams had placed on their true natures, and from how Grilled tore into their opponents from the kick-off, one had to wonder why they bothered to repress themselves.
Bernie Egan's initial advance and strike would be blocked to the side by ex-Tanzanian U-20 goalkeeper Victor Wanyancha, but Grilled took it back off David Talijančić as the defender tried to bring it out, and
Kalki Parvathaneni lofted the equalizer high and beyond Wanyancha.
The remaining few minutes of the half went by in a blur, as Grilled seemed to have forgotten how to defend, leaving Kai Salling essentially a free header from a cross, as Zanzibar responded instantly. Not a problem, as the Birds answered like for like, with Bilal making no mistake from Heng's assist this time, and also with his head. Somehow, the Birds would finish the forty-five 3-2 ahead, as Kalki put it in from a counter following Mattias Hammargård's wayward volley, despite it being nil-nil barely six minutes before.
The fans couldn't claim not to have gotten their money's worth, at least, and there were some friendly exchanges between the players as they trooped off for a deserved break. Zanzibar made no changes in the interim - with their German head coach Gabriel Seckach confident enough to not have named an official bench in the teamsheet - while Grilled put
Gilbert Webb on for Yuta.
In any case, the Birds were geared towards completing
Kalki Parvathaneni's hat-trick, from how they were biasing play towards the right side; not that it didn't make sense, from how Kalki and Bilal were heads and shoulders above their peers, in causing the Zanzibar defence trouble today. It nearly came in the 54th minute too, as Kalki instinctively released a lob having sensed Wanyancha marginally off his line. His senses were accurate, but his aim slightly less so, as it landed on top of the netting.
Zanzibar were certainly doing their best to get back in the match, and with a team that had won three of the last four national cups, they always had to counted in. Their big break would arrive in the 69th, as the Birds were slow to react after a neat interception by Béla Pintér in midfield. Webb decided to stay away as Mattias Hammargård advanced on him at speed, which turned out to be a bad decision as the latter managed to curl it to the far bottom corner without warning.
It was all set up for the Devils' triumphant comeback, so it seemed, as they began to oppress Grilled's panicky defensive adjustments. Grilled weathered the storm eventually, though, and regained the initiative with
Vikram Mudaliar testing Wanyancha, 77 minutes in. The decisive strike would come some seven minutes later, as
Bhavya Panigrahi exceeded all expectations, with a spectacular dribble right into Zanzibar's penalty area, despite several more reasonable options being available.
