QSG Cut Loose
Tian Terror
Qatar Saint-Germain held out for seventy-seven minutes against Grilled, before an astounding six late goals transformed what was plausibly extra time into a complete rout. It might have been fitness, or a sudden loss of concentration, but what was certain was that the Birds, and
Tian Yonghang in particular, had not yet tired of getting goals.
For their first friendly in a while, Grilled returned to cross-training their forwards as midfielders, with
Leong Wan Kang and
Pompeo Bellamoli handling striking duties in a two-man frontline.
Joan Cisquell made it back into defence, with
Gene Filippone playing libero and
Ling Fuquan at right wing. QSG's answer was a seldom-seen 3-4-3 that was wide in defence but concentrated up top, with the focal point of attack being 18 year-old native Nasser Al-Khater, whom the visitors evidently have very high hopes of.
Relishing this break in a string of high-stakes games, Grilled's players set out to enjoy themselves, though the lure of winning soon overcame them.
Low Aik Jia's competitive streak came to the fore, as he ran at QSG captain Otto Scheve, only to throw himself to the ground once inside the penalty area. Even the most blinkered Birds fan recognized that as an embarassing dive, and it was an easy decision for referee Nunzio Palluzzi to book Low.
It would take an error for Grilled to break through, which came from leftback Hisham Bin Tamim Al-Shaqab. The youngster innocently assumed that the game would be stopped after he was nudged aside by
Leong Wan Kang as the two went for a high ball, but the referee saw nothing wrong with that, and Hisham could only watch incredulously as Leong scooted off. Soroor Al-Mahmood got in the way for a courageous block, but the ball was dealt right back, and this time
Tian Yonghang struck it true.
PSG had not gone unbeaten for ten straight matches without some steel of their own, and Romanian forward Ioan-Alexandru Craşovan exhibited footballing intelligence beyond his tender years when he disrupted a Birds break in its infancy. Better still, the free-kick was intercepted, and Hisham was overjoyed to make amends for his earlier mistake with a wonderful shot that went through
Dan Seng's gloves.
Their obduracy continued as they weathered advance after advance, though
Qassem Madaini came within a whisker with a dipping direct free-kick. Hisham and Otto Scheve picked up yellow cards, the latter being lucky to escape more serious censure when he laid into
Ling Fuquan with a raised foot. Although Ling is not available for the next league game in any case, it seemed for a while that he was staring at a much longer absence; fortunately, he was back up and about after some application of icebags.
Once the game got underway again,
Tian Yonghang gave his team the lead once more, searing through from deep before faking out QSG goalie Fabian Duilio with exaggerated hip swerve. Clearly, the adrenaline rush from lifting the Cup with one's favourite club had not yet subsided.
QSG kept their shape well, with their veteran midfield consisting of Ashley Greenhalgh and Svein Steiro being surprisingly resilient in the face of numerical disadvantage. Despite being up against opposition in their prime, the duo knew some useful tricks to buy space, and Greenhalgh even made it all the way to knock in an impressive equaliser in the 64th.
They might have taken the lead had Nasser been more canny, but as things went it was
Chow Ying Lee who put Grilled ahead for the third time. Soroor Al-Mahmood was noticeably slowing by now, and his laboured lunge at a through ball from
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim wasn't enough to divert it well off course. Chow adjusted his run slightly and swept it up in his stride, before rolling it beyond Duilio.
Leong went off for
Djan Bacelar, as the Birds prepared to see out what was probably a fair scoreline.
Tian Yonghang, however, had other ideas. The concept of letting up was alien to him, as he harried the ball off a tired Hisham. A quick one-two with Bellamoli took Soroor out too, and it only remained to steer wide of Duilio to complete his hat-trick. Not done yet, Tian then took his milestone 50th friendly goal with a run down the middle.
QSG might have been annoyed at this breach of protocol, but the Birds were lost in the mood. Bellamoli and Chow scored perhaps a little too easily in the following minutes, perhaps due to the visitors making their point, before reserve coach Luis Alcántara took the hint and tried to slow the match down with a double substitution - Dorogan for Bellamoli, and Lin Ah Chu for Cisquell.
Low Aik Jia was blissfully unaware of his boss's signal, though, and before it could go through, the slick winger had made it 8-2 for the day.
