Flicker Four
Bousquet Claws Draw
Grilled's string of happened-befores extended further as they took their fourth draw in six meetings from Shining Lights, whom they have yet to beat in II.2. The Birds looked poised to end this hoodoo by taking the lead no less than four times, but each time the home side managed to find a rejoinder.
Shining had not been at their best, not having won any of their five league fixtures leading up to this, and must have regarded languishing in mid-table as a disappointment after the highs of the last campaign. They have even made first-team goalies Sarp Nakip and Mazlan bin Meri available in a bid to restructure, but it was by any measure a fine side that turned up at Blackout Arena.
Returning captain
Qassem Madaini was called into action within three minutes, as he put Siegmund Sieslack off by just enough to make his crashing drive veer wide, despite the midfielder doing well to zigzag his way close in without the benefit of a low centre of gravity.
It was up to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim to sound the gong, as he extended his scoring streak to five matches after an injury-blighted early season. English fullback Courtenay Duggan made the mistake of letting Mohd Safri past him without resistance, and would come to rue not fouling the forward as he then gave Fortunato Biondo the runaround before clipping it just out of Nakip's reach.
Shining were always dangerous on the wings, a department Grilled have become known as skimping on, and Giovanni Trudu filtered in from the right side in the 26th minute to put Shining back on level terms.
Slavcho Tzonkov came very close to catching him, but Trudu let fly with uncanny timing.
Grilled were themselves having a good time bashing their way in from the wings, and
Tian Yonghang successfully willed
Paolo Iten's cross to his feet, and slotted it in from a narrow angle. Shining came back with doubled urgency, but their penalty for a silly cynical tug by Iten was put shockingly wide by Wörishofer; Grilled's relief was short-lived, as Antonio Trielli, who has made it something of a business scoring against the Birds, claimed his fifth in six appearances.
The second half panned out much like the first, with some initial Shining forays ending in a slick goal by Grilled, this coming from
Zhu Changchun, who is apparently making up for lost time in the goal department having broken his league duck against The Unbelieveable a fortnight ago. However, Sieslack made up for his earlier miss with a signature header after sustained Lights pressure.
Mohd Safri was let in for a second time from the restart, however, and Grilled coach
Niculae Stanca must have thought to prevent the same thing from happening for a fourth time, putting the fresh legs of
Lin Jungui on for
Slavcho Tzonkov, who had given everything.
Unfortunately, the leak came on the other side, with Lights taking their time to set up a free-kick, after
Seytek Djekshenkulov was left with no option but to take Trielli down immediately after the substitution. They packed men into the box, and Madaini lost Étienne Bousquet in the ensuing chaos, leading to the fourth equalizer of the game.
Tian Yonghang was given a clear path at goal in the 84th minute thanks to the heft of Seytek mowing his way down the left, but he cleared both Nakip and the crossbar with his effort, leaving Grilled with what could be seen as a fair point.