Nurlan Destroys Depeche
The Birds' result would prove decisive today for the S-League, as both Sarcastic Fringeheads and The EV drew their respective fixtures. Bossche NAC had Twan Kruijt come up with a 75th minute poach against Radu Pandelescu to equal Ivan Borichev's early strike, while FC renzels fought back from two down as The EV's Zbyněk Ševeček got his brace amidst a huge number of close misses from all.
It could not have escaped the supporters' eyes that
Manuel Vadalà had been at best very shaky in this match, but
Eren Serpin insisted that the backup custodian could be trusted. "We all know Vadalà's standards, and while he's perhaps not quite
Massoud Dob, he has been a steady presence. We have reserve players for just these occasions, and I can say there are no poor players in our squad."
Nurlan Ablaev bombed Lebanon's FC Depeche Mode for a hat-trick, as the Buns ran riot in the last ten minutes, with Ablaev's 35th minute counter being the only goal of a relatively quiet game up till then. The Russian forward would be unchained as the opposition sat back towards the end, with
Lau Chang Wan and
Richard Agyei also getting in on the scoring for 5-0.
It would be a draw overall for Singapore's II.1 against Lebanon's II.3, however, as Phantasm Hotspurs and Tecos Foreign Legion tied their respective foes, and Arcturules fell 2-4 to three-time Challenger Cup winners Pineapple Cakes, with Gerhard Amann's 66th minute dismissal leaving them scant resources to deploy towards a rally.
For Grilled International, it was another pretty terrible outing, as they were crushed 0-5 by Los lobos de Cotopaxi, with the team appearing increasingly disjointed; Cotopaxi's Ecuadorean international playmaker Antony Andrade being on form only added to International's woes, and
Roar Olaisen would for once be entirely speechless, as he skipped the post-game interview.
