Dogged Paper
Heartbreaker Hai-Peng
Grilled felt the loss of Bao-Tam intensively as Balenciaga gave an undistinguished performance in his stead, leaking through three goals, the attack barely prising a share of the points from this away game.
A5_Paper had thrashed The Cousins and Winners 90 soundly in previous games, Woo Yi-Mou taking a brace in each of those matches. He was well on his way to a repeat as wingman Ban Ka-wai gave him a half-chance that he pushed under Balenciaga.
Xing Hua, who had received a very early yellow card, was the main culprit as he was afraid to risk a second, giving the striker far too much room.
With Hobson conspicuously absent, Attimarad was free to impress and he lured Woo Yi-Mou into bringing him down with some flashy moves in a poor position.
Tom Pence pulled some strings to get his crack at goal, but was badly off target. His square later was far better, seeking out Attimarad from afar for the wily forward to chest down and shuffle home.
Rafael García Sole gave in to his Spanish impetuousness two minutes later as he struck wildly. Such attempts are made and wasted in almost every game, but this time everything clicked and the ball sailed unreachably into goal.
A5_Paper reset the scoreboard through their other forward Huang Jia-wen, who too let loose from nowhere, beating Balenciaga comprehensively. Machado came closest with another out-of-the-box strike, this time a scissors kick that took the breath away. Quang-Vinh in the A5_Paper goal was out of the picture, but the ball was a few degrees off. Pence stayed on despite an injury in the 74th minute, and had a hand in the team goal in the 77th, when swift interpassing opened the way for
Gao Seng-kar to poach an easy one.
With Bing Kwok-Wai leaving due to a bad knock on his shin, Grilled were lulled into complacency. His substitute Cai Hai-Peng sent the home crowd into a frenzy when he was first to Ban Ka-wai's ground cross, draining a brilliant chip over a hasty Balenciaga.
