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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 71 | L | 5 - 4 | Tournament (Playoffs) |
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Stars Revisited
Lim Emerges
The Birds have already played Nightstar 2 once before, ten seasons ago in the quarterfinals of the Cup der Legenden tournament, which the Kyrgyzstani club eventually reached the finals of before falling to United Eagles FC. They have completed their set of domestic Challenger Cups with the Ruby version since then, although Grilled would do better against them today than they did before, in holding them to a four-all draw.
Notably, Grilled would see a number of familiar faces return, with
Moey Xin Seng,
Kalki Parvathaneni,
Chan Ze Han and
Gilbert Webb all having also started a decade ago. Nightstar 2 on the other hand had entirely turned their squad over, though Italian defender Mauro Curto Pelle - who played then - had been promoted to player-coach. Pelle would not make himself available for this one, as he seeks to build up his next great midfield, as exemplified by Cameroonian star Bernard Feudjio.
With the hosts going rather markedly towards stretching Grilled, and the Birds keeping to what they knew best - a closest-distance approach straight ahead - there was always bound to be an excess of chances. Webb had certainly slowed since last time, and Nightstar 2 were soon granted a free-kick in a dangerous position, after the Scotsman blocked Martez Burrow off from the ball, with it having been played on. Andrea Schiesaro took it quickly, and nearly surprised
Dimitris Germanakos, though the Greek goalie had it under control eventually.
The flow of the match would then go very well for the Birds, with Nightstar 2 being first to commit some rather egregious defensive mistakes, for once. It appeared an easy matter to contain
Teo Chuan Yong as the midfielder took it up slowly in the 16th minute, but somehow everyone in range backed off, and left Teo free to take his shot - a good one - from ten yards. Five minutes later, Chan would grab Grilled's second as he had previously, with Feudjio unable to keep between him and goal. That was 2-0, Birds.
It felt like Grilled's day in this tournament after so long, as Nightstar 2's wide play resulted but in several poor and easily-cleared crosses - for now. Trinidad & Tobago Number Eight Ryan Walker-Marcel would break the mould with a mazy cut-in from the left, which however went straight to Germanakos.
Paulino Trindade showed how it should be done with a difficult-to-handle low ball;
Kalki Parvathaneni had changed direction to the near post in anticipation, and met it with a fabulous flick past Romanelli, making up for what he had lost in pace with cleverness and touch.
Nightstar 2 were in a pickle then, but Jan Adelner's prompt reducer two minutes later - with skipper Andrea Schiesaro fanning wide left to provide the assist - provided them with a base to build on in the second half. Grilled's usual struggle with stamina came into play as the younger opponents started to claim more of the possession, and they would make it 2-3 from a neat free-kick combination. Schiesaro floated it in, Esen Topchubayev headed it on, and Tursun Poziljonov got to it first as Germanakos was taken out of contention.
A redeployment was in order, and
Aw Keng Chuan would be moved back into right defence where
Bhavya Panigrahi had been, with Panigrahi subbed out for
Lim An Keng. Kalki would also depart for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul for a double substitution, which certainly topped Grilled's energy levels up. A frenzied sequence nearly bore fruit three minutes later, as Khairul crossed early versus Petrilli.
Moey Xin Seng did well to execute a firm header, which however was a couple of metres off target.
Nightwish 2 heeded that warning well, and got their equalizer in the 76th minute, to loud groans from the visiting section. Khairul, quite like
Enrique Baena, was sorely lacking in defensive discipline, and this left Laureano Santos Tavares with far too much room to work with. The finish would however be supplied by Dutch centreback Quirijn Ravensbergen, who had unexpectedly advanced all the way in support - and further bamboozled Webb with nifty footwork beyond what might be expected of a central defender.
There were then slightly more than ten minutes to final a winner here, and Adelner wouldn't be shy about trying his luck from the left corner of the penalty area, but that was perhaps far too optimistic against a correctly-positioned
Dimitris Germanakos.
Chia Kwang Tse had been waiting to come on for
Bilal Mohammad Harun, and this worked magic as he brought his academy best buddy
Lim An Keng into action with a defence-splitting pass curling subtly to the right. This was just enough to take it away from Poziljonov into Lim's path, and the Number 26 would make sure to acknowledge Chia after it went into the net.
Alas, victory was not to be Grilled's this day either, as Tavares answered immediately, with Burrow losing Webb on the right and creating a two-on-one against an otherwise-competent Aw. This could not be said to be a bad outcome, though, seeing as it finally broke the Birds' run of defeats in the tourney.
