Zibbed In The Bud
This Golden Trophy Round of 16 match would turn out to be fairly anticlimactic, with Italian VI.316 opponents A.C. ZIBIDO outmatched by Grilled's offensive talents. ZIBIDO might have won 2-0 in their league opener over Gibeiro off a Gionata Segaricci brace, but the on-form winger would be left on the bench for some reason. The Birds were in contrast smarting after their 3-4 away loss to Queenstown MZKs, but this did not prevent them from unleashing upon the Italians in this evening contest.
The weather had stayed dry in Singapore, which was all the Birds wanted really. This unlocked their preferred mixed passing game, which had arguably improved in terms of high-percentage balls, after the departure of their strike team. ZIBIDO matched the pace at first, and after
Hwang Teck Fu's cross to
Mohd Marzuki Khairul was not cushioned properly by the latter, ZIBIDO would counter hard up the right flank, with Matteo Deli Orazi dragging it full across to Jordi Vivet with Grilled's defence entirely missing; only decisive action by
Dimitris Germanakos saved them there!
Germanakos would take his time admonishing Ha and Aw as he held onto the ball, which the duo could not quite complain about. Fortunately for them, a distraction would soon arrive in the form of
Gandhik Chitre's wonderstrike in the fourteenth minute, that somehow found the top left corner of Gennadiy Babeshko's goal through two attempted blocks.
Chia Kwang Tse seized on ZIBIDO's ensuing loss of concentration, and would have two to his name by the twentieth minute.
The first of those would have a huge deflection off Hannes Holzgräber to thank, with his strike seemingly going nowhere when it left his boot, but the next - a drive through Babeshko's legs - was a thing of beauty.
Joe Reece would replace
Chan Ze Han for the second half with a spring in his step, which could possibly be attributed to unconfirmed news that he had finally attracted a prospective buyer, at long last.
As it was, the Welshman remained a step beneath his best, but he would make for a good body in the box to play off. Reece would spot
Ha Qicai's calibrated run across the head of the penalty area five minutes into the second half, but an incredible one-handed stop by Gennadiy Babeshko kept ZIBIDO in the game - if barely.
Gandhik Chitre didn't hesitate in taking the volley on first-time, but Tero Lunnas' presence was just enough to throw him off his stride.
ZIBIDO clearly had to act fast if they were to try and salvage this, and Jyrki Vähämaa would put his faith in Lars-Håkan Lundling and Gionata Segaricci, who would replace Brás Afonso de Jesus and Tero Lunnas respectively. The new blood in attack and midfield would indeed give Grilled something to think about, but not for very long, and
Ha Qicai would get a second chance with his powerful header in the 72nd minute... once again saved by Babeshko.
Grilled Birds were pounding them in from the right wing now, with
Brian Reddy finally having run Swedish fullback Mikael Sedstad into the ground, and it was surely only a matter of time before one of them would come good.
Lim An Keng, who had just scored twice against Queenstown MZKs, would display a clinical streak as he nudged Abram Boekaerts away before burying a now-uncontested header. The Belgian protested indignantly, but the match officials saw nothing in it.
Boekaerts' teammate Salvatore Antonioli would show his solidarity in standing up a Birds free-kick to complain further, but that would only see him booked for his pains. The score would go up to 5-0 a couple of minutes after that as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul tapped it in after coming around the back, at which
Brian Reddy could retire at a job well done.
