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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 81 | L | 1 - 6 | Tournament (Group Phase) | | Season 77 | W | 2 - 0 | Tournament (Playoffs) |
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Tigers' Mettle
Serse Spot On
Liga Perdana challengers Malaysian Tigers might not be having the best of seasons by their own standards, but the 14-time national champions retained enough to defeat Grilled Birds in this final round of the AFC ASIAN CUP group stages, only narrowly missing overhauling the Birds for a place in the final 32.
While the league title is all but beyond them for the season, Mongolian head coach Khidyr Baasandorj had not let up on his squad management, as he brought former Congolese U-20 defender Rémi Bubama and Belgian midfielder Diederick Allijns in, over the past month. Neither however made today's lineup as Baasandorj continued to use the tournament to exercise some reserves, and Polish veteran Beniamin Sałęga captained the side at left wing instead.
For Tian, it was an opportunity to throw
Genki Nagano into the fray before his first training session with the Birds, which might not have had the outcome he had intended. It was perhaps a problematic sign when the newcomer took the ball off skipper
Ha Qicai in one of their first few interactions, even if this was soon forgotten as Grilled got down to business. They were circulating the ball well in midfield, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul looking especially dangerous, and
Lim An Keng would do well by Marzuki's unselfish layoff in the 20th minute to clip it past Maldives custodian Nischal Firash, for 1-0.
It was all going quite well for the Birds this half, although their ample possessional advantage did not translate to as much of a corresponding chance creation, as it would have against most other teams. The Tigers' mutual coordination in their wide 3-5-2 had quite a lot to do with that, and Genki's understanding with Ha would be exposed when Fred Tenorio robbed the latter on the move in the 35th minute. The new Number Two was slow to recognize the situation, and while he did close Tenorio down in seconds, it had been passed to Matthias Walta for the equalizer by then.
The Birds remained the side with the initiative for now, and Marzuki definitely deserved his goal in the 39th, after deceptively effective dribbling that took him past Lithuanian sweeper Bruonius Kamelevičius, despite the lack of pace on the run. Openings remained hard to come by, though, and
Gandhik Chitre was put on for
Aw Keng Chuan on the hour, in an effort to push the Birds forward more. This did lead to a clear
Darko Andrović chance two minutes later, but had to be accounted a tactical disaster, from how the match then developed.
It happened that Aw's marking of Tunisian national midfielder Nidhal Haj Mabrouk had been critical in containing the Tigers, and with him now gone, the Malaysians had it far easier in advancing when they had the ball. This came to a head in the 75th minute, when
Radomil Marcol barely turned Serse Spoto's snapshot from the left side of the six-yard box, around the post. This merely delayed the goal, as it turned out, with the San Marino striker then wresting control back from the short corner, before blasting it almost through the hapless goalkeeper.
Spoto was not done, and he would continue throwing his considerable weight around the penalty area - which culminated in a second goal just five minutes later from a deceptively-graceful chip. The Tigers were thus in the lead for the first time, which combined with news from Indonesia that Bule Gila di Jakarta were leading Bintang 2-0, meant that Grilled were suddenly in danger of getting eliminated from the competition.
The drama intensified even as the commentators noted that the Birds could only afford to let in one more as things stood, and Grilled's attempt to win themselves some breathing room only backfired, after
Ha Qicai slammed a header wide from a hard-won corner 83 minutes in. The goal kick was taken very quickly, and after Matthias Walta outraced
Darko Andrović's perfunctory efforts down their right wing, he crossed excellently for Nidhal Haj Mabrouk to make it 4-2 with a flick of his forehead!
With there being zero margin for error now,
Tian Yonghang pulled the apologetic Andrović for
Toma Tamiya as soon as he could, with a brief to defend as much as he could. The fix worked, and Chitre would be replaced by
Kendell El Khateeb later on, with the youngster given similar instructions. This was enough for Grilled Birds to preserve their stay in the AFC ASIAN CUP, but it could not be denied that Malaysian Tigers were the moral victors on the day.
