Grilled Birds were not taking the last two days before their Sapphire Challenger Cup final easy, what with Nepalese II.2 club La Divine Equipe making for their penultimate tune-up, in the Dominion International Cup. Founded by the management of French outfit the Divins, Equipe had just come off their first season in the national A-Division, which has had English boss Kerry Hearn continue busily tweaking his squad on a budget. Portuguese midfielder Luís Elias de Carvalho and Tunisian trainee Noureddine Dahman had just arrived last week, for instance, though neither would make today's clash.

Hearn went for a 5-3-2 after their 2-3 league loss to Wiwanni in a 4-5-1 formation, with trusted deputy Sheldon Graves captaining the team at rightback. He had gone for experience in taking Equipe to the top division, and none of his starting eleven would be under 32 years of age. Tian Yonghang would throw his usual tournament XI against this, if with Darko Andrović's inclusion on the bench leading to much speculation as to whether he would feature here.

Attention would soon be turned to the actual happenings on the field, as the Birds found themselves subtly sucked into Equipe's pace. The Nepalese back five played a fairly high line to begin with, evidently confident in their ability to prevent individual break-ins, and this tack served them well when a concerted Grilled siege in the 18th minute ended with Raúl Himadas' strike well-caught by Slovenian custodian Edi Miklošič. His long throw would go straight to Remigiusz Matyskiewicz on the half-way line, and it was thus Equipe who opened the scoring after the Polish forward countercharged successfully.

Grilled collected themselves, and it was level again six minutes on, with Hwang Teck Fu nodding home a second-chance effort from Chia Kwang Tse's header off the bar. It would be two-all by half-time, with the Nepalese again taking the lead from Sakari Kaas off a Yu Xingxian assist, after Aw Keng Chuan had teased another lob onto the woodwork. Gandhik Chitre answered that immediately, though, as he maneuvered his way between two defenders before skipping a grounder in off the slick turf.

The substitution that the fans had been waiting for indeed arrived at the start of the second half, with Darko Andrović taking Paulino Trindade's place on the left wing, and facing Attila Haffner down. This certainly made for a more balanced Grilled offence with Reddy no longer getting the major share of balls played wide, which led to a string of corners about the 57th minute. The third in that sequence would be met by Raúl Himadas as he climbed over Xia Xianghai, and while that header wasn't on target, it fell nicely for Gandhik Chitre to sweep home.

The Birds were in the lead for the first time, then, and Lim An Keng would nearly follow that up with a stupendous diving header next, only for Edi Miklošič to kick it aside despite already falling the other way. The clearance was a close-run affair with Chitre nearly getting to it before Milouš Molin, but it was good enough for Andrey Zolotnikov to fire onto the crossbar, seconds later. Chia then had a fine curler swing inches over, and Grilled would then fall victim to a big goal kick, as Matyskiewicz polished off Yu Xingxian's well-timed through pass.

Equipe were noticeably slowing by now, as might have been expected from their age profile, but Grilled were having no luck in finding another breakthrough, with Miklošič's positioning solid as ever. He would make a couple of good stops, as Aw Keng Chuan was all but encouraged to shoot from outside. Well, what Aw really needed was a bit of help, and it came in the 75th minute when Raúl Himadas beat his marker at a corner for a second time. No-one was watching Aw as he lurked at the corner of the six-yard box, allowing a powerful finish off the unattended right goalpost.

Miklošič did not have time to question his defence about that, as he would soon be called into action against Ha Qicai's close-up effort, which came painfully off his face. Aw would be replaced by Teo Chuan Yong as two minutes of injury time was displayed, which was long enough for Daro Andrović to take a first crack. Unfortunately for him, it would come straight back off Bulgarian centreback Vasil Gogushev, and the Hail Mary counter from Equipe had Sakari Kaas trickle the equaliser past Radomil Marcol, as his team threw everything they had into that final attack.