Mamba Munching
Oliveira Double
Grilled made their way to southeastern Africa to challenge Mozambique Division Two club Gremio Mambas, and ended up bitten us usual.
Sándor Deme made a welcome return to football after his dreadful injury in the Cup that has kept him out for over a month, but the Number 25 wasn't able to turn Grilled's fortunes around.
The Mambas played a defensive game, and the Birds' lone striker
Mohd Firdaus bin Yaacob was swallowed up by their five-man backline whenever the ball headed his way. The hosts were not particularly potent either, but Mirchev gifted them a free-kick at the head of the penalty area when he tugged Higino rather unnecessarily in the 15th minute. Midfielder Sérgio Oliveira struck it with venom, just wide of the last man in the wall, to find the net.
There appeared to be some discontent in the Grilled ranks as nobody bothered to track back when Gremio broke forward soon after, but Tuan-Mu managed to head off the first wave with a magnificent slide. Argider Aranzubia was on to him in an instant, unfortunately, and the young Spaniard nicked the ball before racing past Bao-Tam as well to score.
Bao-Tam denied their main striker Higino with a gem of a save, but would be beaten yet again before half-time. The culprit this time was wingback
Hu Huihong, who still has a lot to learn about positioning. Beaten soundly by d'Ávila with a clever shimmy, Huihong tried to haul the winger down before he entered the area, but was punished for his cynicism with both a booking and a penalty kick. Oliveira didn't bother with placement, and rammed it down the middle as Bao-Tam leaned over to his right.
With another loss imminent, Grilled began loosening up and enjoying the game for itself, with
Sándor Deme in particular looking delighted just to be back on the pitch. The Hungarian winger made a gutsy run into the opposition box, but was hassled enough for Carvalho to gather the final shot without much trouble. Grilled continued going at it, and won a free-kick off Pedro Domingo. Mirchev took it early, but ballooned it embarassingly into the upper stands.
The Birds finally got their just rewards for their positive play, as Chow Puay Hock flung himself selflessly at an overhit cross by Deme to bring it down, before regaining control of the ball scrappily. Firdaus drifed in at the far post to provide support, but the Grilled midfielder, who has yet to appear for the first team, went for it and beat Carvalho at his near post with aplomb.
Deme continued running like a man possessed, till he was tempered by a yellow card for hacking Matos down, which he accepted without complaint. Gremio slowly found their tempo again, and after a long string of passes in midfield, Nabo found Urmat Tynystanov dashing through the centre with a perfectly-timed release. Bao-Tam came off his line, but was too late to stop the Kyrgyzstani defender from clipping it into his goal.
Oliveira should have had his hat-trick on 80 minutes as he dived to send a header seemingly wide of Bao-Tam, but Grilled's veteran goalie somehow recovered in time to palm it aside. The crowd's disappointment didn't last long, though, as Seng-Huat made a hash of the clearance and allowed Nabo to race it and knock it into the onion sack.
Lim Chuan Heng kept up his workrate, but misapplied it somewhat when he raked his studs across Higino's shins. Luckily the pads bore the brunt of his attack, and the referee was able to settle the matter with a yellow card and a stern talking-to. Chuan Heng didn't seem to take the hint as he clashed with Tynystanov almost immediately after that, knocking the wind out of the defender, and fortunately for his his challenge was legal this time.
