Lights Persevere
Tian Heart
Grilled made hard work of defending league champions Shining Lights despite the visitors being a man down for most of the game and having two players injured, but although it appeared to the fans at The Cooking Pot that they deserved the win, it eventually transformed into a huge sense of relief as
Tian Yonghang saved a point as the match entered its final minute.
They did get off to an excellent start, as midweek inspiration
Chow Ying Lee surprised tall Italian defender Fortunato Biondo as he broke with the ball down to his outside in the fourth minute, then pulled it back before the other defenders had time to react. Sarp Nakip came out in the blink of an eye, but Chow showed deadly instincts as he kept his line to round the goalie and tap it in.
It looked more and more like Grilled's day when deep-lying forward Étienne Bousquet landed heavily on his left ankle in the seventh minute, and his replacement Antonio Trielli wasn't nearly as comfortable collecting the ball from deep. Grilled however failed to capitalize as Lights reformed their system, and were instead caught overextended in the 24th minute, as out-and-out forward Markus Võigemast raced Tzonkov to a long ball and won.
Grilled were shaken, and could only watch as Siegwart Wörishofer, pointed out as a key threat by many outlets before kickoff, strangled the midfield. The German shook off a limp obtained after an uncompromising challenge to crash hard into
Zhu Changchun, and then shook off his card to blast a second goal in, his sixth in three matches;
Dexter Stacey kicked his post after that in the knowledge that he should have done far better.
Wörishofer would not be able to shrug off his second yellow the very next minute, as the understandable rush of blood to his head took over and had him blatantly drag
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim back by the scruff of his neck as the two faced off. Referee Gong Dilai simply had no discretion in the matter as he showed his barely-warm yellow again, and then the red.
Shining coach Guilhem Huss gave the distraught midfielder a perfunctory pat on the back as he marched into the tunnel, even as he ordered Kurt Sellerup on for Pedro Lezaun in a bid to keep things competitive in midfield. Wörishofer was able to applaud his team going another one up, though, before reaching the dressing room - Antonio Trielli had placed himself cleverly at the far post in anticipation of a stray header off a free-kick, and made no mistake when it did arrive.
Cruelly reminded of why they had not beaten Shining Lights in four meetings, the Birds at least remembered to keep going, and
Alex Fonseca lightened their burden with an immediate riposte. The Portuguese rotation player, in the starting lineup only because of
Abdul bin Jantan's injury, kept his head when
Tian Yonghang hit the ball in his direction, and put a measured grounded past Nakip.
Grilled came out for the second half instilled with belief, and Fonseca proved just how much of a bargain he was, by imposing his leadership on his much younger midfield colleagues. This soon resulted in him getting a clear sight of goal in the 52nd minute, but he placed a bit too much behind his strike this time, lifting it breathtakingly close over the top left corner.
Lights were still dangerous, and Markus Võigemast nearly doubled his tally against the run of play, as he lost
Lin Jungui and twisted his body to execute a technically magnificent diving header across the goal. Stacey, who had been below his usual standards for the earlier goals, lived up to his reputation this time with a dramatic flying save.
The visitors were not eager to risk their hard-earned lead, as they used all the experience at their disposal to ping high-percentage short passes around the midfield line.
lu Zunwen, frustrated by these tactics, was drawn into an ill-advised yellow card in the 58th minute, and
Niculae Stanca, seeing the game slipping away, whispered instructions into the ear of
Walter Ross before sending him on for Tzonkov.
The odds became stacked more and more in Grilled's favour as Lights began to be unable to keep up their tempo, especially with Fortunato Biondo crumpling to the ground with a recurring knee injury. The depth of their bench was evident as Geir Rørstad slipped in without a hitch, though, and Grilled got a worry of their own when the on-form
Chow Ying Lee banged up his leg, and hobbled off to an eager
Tang Hengcai.
With fifteen minutes to go and no breakthrough in sight, Stanca made his last roll of the dice, using his last sub to take off Fonseca and give
Mayur Gudivada his first taste of league action, possibly as a reward for his recent endeavour. Unfortunately, Gudivada soon showed that passion and a willingness to run can only take a player thus far, nearly throwing the game away with a panicked backpass which
Lin Jungui only barely managed to rescue by sticking close to Trielli.
It seemed like the Lights were going to record their third straight victory over the Birds, as the seconds ticked away with Grilled now reduced to pumping hopeful balls deep into the Lights half at every opportunity. The supporters didn't know whether to cheer the team's resilience or heckle their lack of imagination, but the relentless human wave finally paid dividends against the shorthanded Lights, with
Tian Yonghang nicking the vital equalising goal in the 88th minute.
