Cigarri Comeback
Gandhik Promise
Grilled would pass up their final chance to secure a victory in this season's World Battle tournament, as Albanian II.4 club Cigarri equalized in the last minute of regular time, to deny the Birds that slight comfort. Grilled Birds would be able to console themselves through
Gandhik Chitre's mature outing at the centre-foward position, at least, one that left no doubt as to the role the trainee is currently the most naturally suited to fill.
Chitre might not even have been included had it not been for
Teo Chuan Yong's long-term injury, as
Tian Yonghang also included
Lim An Keng in today's starting XI, with the Number 26 probably the squad's best-performing U-20 midfielder at the moment. This would be the first time that the Birds had faced an Albanian side in twenty-four years, with Tian himself captaining Grilled in the last such friendly, which ended 3-0 in their favour against the Tirane Tigers.
Cigarri's Bulgarian player-coach Petar Zahariev would field himself in midfield as they sent out a reduced squad, although with former national youth internationals Fehmi Madhi and Erzen Papuqi leading the line, they always remained a real threat to score. It didn't take any longer than two minutes in reality, as Papuqi shielded central defender David Kratky's dribble, on their first real advance.
Dimitris Germanakos might probably have done better, as the low strike skipped past him.
The Birds would pull ahead in the next few minutes, as first
Moey Xin Seng and then
Chan Ze Han forced their way through the middle, quite blatantly pressing Grilled's numerical advantage. Cigarri would be a lot more conservative after that, and showed the Birds up at times with clever solo breaks that forced them back. One such effort set Danish playmaker Kenny Rantala up at the head of the penalty area, and Rantala would bend it neatly to the top left corner, for 2-2.
This would be the sign for
Gandhik Chitre to impose himself, and the youngster - thus far mostly indifferent in his other games holding midfield - would enter his element. His little touches, so often not entirely effective some forty yards from goal, would suddenly become all the difference. Thus was it in the 25th minute after he turned Tonino Ungredda with a tiny flick of his right boot, and it might have been another right afterwards, had he not rang it off the goalpost with Kaloyan Shkutov well beaten instead.
Chitre would extend Grilled's lead further straight after the half-time break, as he kept running at the opposition defence with the innocent industry that only youth players could maintain. One powerful drive took a lucky bounce, and it would be 4-2 for the Birds. Cigarri were not done either, and they would have the striking talent to make even half-chances count. This was the case when Ungredda floated a cross from the left in the 58th minute, which had
Gilbert Webb seemingly having Fehmi Mahdi covered... only for the forward to seize the initiative with a monster of a leap, to direct a well-placed header past Germanakos.
Tian would go for a double substitution at that, with oldies
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Kalki Parvathaneni taken off for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Enrique Baena. The injection of their unbridled enthusiasm would place extra stress on Cigarri, with Polish playmaker Krzesisław Buczkowski soon copping the only booking of the match for a delayed tackle on Baena. Chan would then add another in the 75th minute off a good assist from the Spanish lad, which raised hopes amongst the Grilled supporters of triumph for once.
Sadly, this would not happen. Madhi would show off the quick thinking - which, on top of his imposing build, had won him a call-up to the Albanian U-20s - right after Chan's goal, which had him lob Germanakos after bypassing Grilled's slow defensive line. Chitre would unwillingly go off for
Prokop Mottl with ten minutes left, his hat-trick still incomplete, as Shkutov saved
Bhavya Panigrahi's excellent free-kick curler. Finally, Ungredda would somehow find himself unattended in the box as the Birds sought to while away the final few minutes, and that was it for their much-desired win.
