Tamed Sixfold
Woon Finishes It
Wong Ping Shun carried on living up to his seven million dollar pricetag, as he solidified his set-piece reputation with two goals and an assist from them. The victory allowed Grilled to overtake Young Tigers into second place, as the Birds' attacking output papered over their leaky defence.
With 37 year-old backup
Hovaness Noubaryan the new first choice in goal, it was evident that the Birds were not holding too much hope of keeping a clean sheet, and rightly sought to take the game to the Tigers from the start.
Chow Ying Lee kept his industry from the draw against J3 Almighty going, as he nearly bypassed Constantino Largoet with a lightning-quick crossover step in the eighth minute.
The Spanish defender was sharp enough to move his body into the way, which referee Marius-Viorel Turcea saw as illegal interference.
Qassem Madaini made as to lift it to the far post for Mohd Safri and
Zhao Jing Wei to contest, but wound up leaving it for
Wong Ping Shun to drive low for Chow at the other end, resulting in a simple conversion.
Tigers hadn't fought their way up II.2 by sitting back, though, and the fire that has seen them strike an average of four a game caused Grilled plenty of problems.
Rashid bin Ahmad made a go of mopping up, but was left astounded by Donnie van der Ven's magical first-time volley in the 31st minute that rocked the woodwork. That was not enough to escape, however, as Stefan Rådman followed up to put it past Noubaryan.
There was a buzz of anticipation when Mohd Safri was tripped right in front of the penalty area from the restart, after Wong purposefully picked up the ball and took his time to position it extremely carefully. In contrast, the execution itself took barely any time at all, as Wong thundered in with a long run-up, and split the Tigers defensive wall with sheer power.
Astoundingly, that has been the only Grilled league goal scored directly from a free-kick that The Cooking Pot has witnessed for near seven seasons, a quite unsavoury statistic.
Abdul bin Jantan then made it 3-1 with a canny dribble, but Portuguese forward Aníbal Vieira immediately cancelled that with a clever advance of his own.
The only booking of an otherwise clean match came when Evdokim Telichkin shoulder-barged bin Jantan deliberately in the 39th minute, which will see him suspended for the return leg next weekend. It didn't even hamper the veteran too much, especially with the half-time break coming up.
The Tigers kept it positive, with head coach Camilo Fernández directing his forwards to try and force Grilled's defence wide. However, it would be the Birds who again drew blood first, as goalie Yuan Qibin took Chow's legs out in a one-on-one. Wong hit the penalty home, of course at full blast.
Grilled would not be able to relax for long, as the visitors' tenacity paid off in the 79th minute. Abandoning width for once, they piled into the middle, and a couple of inventive passes saw Paweł Sucharzewski free to reduce the lead to one once more.
Unfortunately for them, the Birds maintained an advantage when directly trading blows, with
Rashid bin Ahmad profiting as the Tigers gambled in search of the equaliser.
Woon Shun An then finally extinguished their hopes, with a zigzagging run that concluded with a neat lob.
