Clipped By Selur
A Bruno Knockout
seluraralc avenged their unexpected loss earlier in the season with victory by the same three-goal margin, with defender Bruno Brandão making up for his missed penalty that day. He notched a quickfire brace by the 23rd minute to put his side in the driving seat, and Grilled never quite looked like getting back in the match after that.
Want-out
Ciro Penati stewed on the bench as Grilled kept their now-favoured 4-3-3, while the hosts kept faith with their trademark 2-5-3, with an emphasis on midfield. Unlike previous weeks, however, the Birds had to contend with a far more unpredictable forward line, and the defenders were all over the place by the ninth minute when Bruno Brandão scuttled in from deep and neatly lifted the ball over Valdir.
The early goal encouraged the slightly-subdued home supporters to throw their full weight behind the team, which responded in kind by thoroughly dominating an uncertain Grilled midfield.
Gleb Dorogan, unhappy at being outmanned one too many times, made a point of running full tilt into Sng Wan Rong, an act which immediately got him booked.
seluraralc shook that off easily, and quickly doubled their lead through a classic Brandão free-kick, which leaves him three off a career century. They were not done, and Dutch striker Loïc Verkuil increased their lead to 3-0, as he gave Behr twisted blood with his slippery tricks.
As in previous matches, Han was out by the sidelines from kick-off, but could do nothing to save his side from being mauled this time. It was quite clear that
Erik Back wasn't up to full fitness yet, and Han did the expected by sending
Kyou-Chull Kim out in his place for the second half.
That did little to stem the tide, however, and seluraralc had the luxury of resting Claus Juergen Pistner in the 60th minute, after having come very close to making it four, with Can Arafat's left-footed volley winding inches wide of the far post in the run-up to that.
Han Lik-Tsun was then presented with the opportunity to make an impact himself, after
Björn Olsson got the worst of an unintentional collision with an opposition player with twenty minutes to go. The Swede defender's face was bloodied by the force of the impact, and he had to be stretchered off in a neck brace as a precaution.
Han made a roaring start, putting in a perfectly-timed tackle to strip Arafat of the ball, but even his leadership on the pitch couldn't turn things around. The match, which had been spluttering out, came back to life late on, as Minicucci lobbed just wide, and Chua Puay Ming stopped Dorogan from getting a consolation.
There would be one last kicker in it for Grilled, as Valdir hurt himself stretching to save a last-minute effort from Jesús Puelles. The only silver lining for the morose travelling fans was the sight of Valdir handing off the captain's armband to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, who proudly lifted it in a gesture of acknowledgement.
