Hitman Mauro
Thai Assassination
Grilled Birds' run in the Pacific Cup would end abruptly in the Round of 32, as they were put away by Bangkok's Dark Assassin, in a lopsided 5-1. The III.8 leaders, a longtime affiliate of established Swiss club 1.Fc Altstätten Devills, would yield possession slightly - but stay several steps ahead of the Birds, in most other respects. Italian Number Nine Mauro Leonardi would lead by example, as he cleaned up with a hat-trick against
Bhavya Panigrahi, who did save some face with a second-half penalty conversion.
Grilled would change little from the selection that had been shown up by Arcturules in the league, though
Tian Yonghang did return
Enrique Baena to action, as he started on the right with
Paulino Trindade on the left. It would be a day to forget for an unusually-subdued Baena, though. As for Dark Assassin, their star Belgian central defender Iddo Demesmaeker would be available despite being sent off in their latest league fixture, and his cerebral style would fare well against the Birds' forwards today.
The Assassins would have to weather some early threats from Grilled, and for that they would have dependable goalie Methee Srirattanasobhon to thank. The one-club man would first stay on his toes when
Bilal Mohammad Harun let fly from several yards outside the box in the fifth minute, and directed his block towards fullback Silvano Bottura. Six minutes later,
Moey Xin Seng appeared likely to score when Chan played it to his feet well inside, but Demesmaeker did just enough to throw Moey slightly off an immediate take, and Srirattanasobhon wasted no time in closing the distance.
Grilled's defence would be positively uncertain of itself in contrast, and for all of the midfield's striving to protect Panigrahi and Webb, the inevitable would happen in the 22nd minute, when Leonardi slipped it between Panigrahi's legs before racing fifteen metres for a textbook finish.
Enrique Baena's month then got worse, as his tame performance would develop into an own goal in the 33rd minute, after he attempted to help out in defence. Bader Al-Bodey's effort didn't look all that, but Baena took his eyes off it, and it took a huge deflection off his shin, and crept in off the near post.
Little was coming off for the Birds for all of
José Luiz Velho's tireless running into space at the other end, and Grilled's task went from difficult to near-impossible, as Leonardi bagged a second for himself, 38 minutes in. The nimble Italian had proven himself unmarkable by Grilled's creaky defence, and when Gibbes Bertemes sent his cross in from the right, there would be nobody within two metres when he took flight. The header remained awkward with the ball higher than Leonardi might have preferred, but he achieved enough contact to send it cleanly past
Manuel Vadalà, for 3-0.
The second half had
Prokop Mottl on for Velho as Tian sought to freshen an increasingly-stale attack, and it looked to have worked - sort of - when Grilled earned a penalty three minutes in. Actually, this had very little to do with any of the Birds' players at all, with Serbian midfielder Nenad Jocić unable to move his arm out of the way, when a teammate tried to play it out of the penalty area. The referee saw the handball, and Panigrahi would be deployed; he would be responsible for what was perhaps Grilled's best moment of the day, as he faked Srirattanasobhon out with his approach, before planting it easily into the back of the net.
That was really as good as it would get for the defender, and it was soon back to ritual humiliation by Leonardi, with Bader Al-Bodey again leaving
Enrique Baena hanging uselessly on the outside, as he dribbled up the left. Panigrahi, recognizing the danger, would try to position himself between Leonardi and goal, but the Number Nine's razor-sharp off-the-ball moves were just too overwhelming. Al-Bodey seized the right moment, and all that was left was for Leonardi to get a foot in, for his hat-trick.
The Birds had barely recovered when they were taken unawares as Silvano Bottura came down the middle a few minutes later, as Pauli Kaakinen shielded well and somehow held on to the ball despite getting swamped by Grilled players. Grilled's only chance of note after that would be when
Aw Keng Chuan hit it hard in the 66th minute, and got on the end of the first save, but Srirattanasobhon would simply refuse to concede from open play. Aw would himself go off with ten minutes left for
Chad Thach, who showed off a couple of dinky tricks, but to no actual contribution.
