Baku Bested
Clément Case
Understrength Güclülər Dəstəsi club BakuBesT were beaten 4-0 by a Grilled XI testing a 4-5-1, with
Clément Meyer putting himself forward as a legitimate midfield goal threat in the absence of
Zhao Jing Wei. The visitors' young-and-learning defence were not short on endeavour, but were simply too inexperienced to handle the Birds' wily old foxes.
Some of the over 7000 spectators looked mildly dismayed as the squads were announced, likely having expected star turns like Jody Schillaci and Ignacio de Herrera to have made an appearance, but their loss was Grilled's on-field gain.
Faced with reserves and anchored by a four-man defence for one, Grilled plunged forward boldly.
Tian Yonghang fired the first salvo with a magnificent drive by his lonesome up the left, only to put it over. No matter, Meyer would come good five minutes later, glancing
Gene Filippone's corner in with impeccable technique.
Baku's Spanish organizer Francisco Manuel Oxenstierna gamely tried to keep the defence together and compact, but inevitably they lost their shape again, leading to
Colby Awyong rolling a second past Ramazan Salayev just after half an hour.
Even their lone striker Charles Larvor began to help out behind at this, and together with more rejiggling at half-time, had Baku stand their ground through the 60th minute.
Leong Wan Kang's arrival for Bellamoli gave the Birds the extra kick they so badly needed, and he provided the space for
Ling Fuquan to play Tian in for 3-0.
The visitors had at least by then gotten used to Grilled, and other than a speculative shot from
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, they would not come under much further threat. Of course, Mohd Safri was hardly satisfied by that, and he got his goal in the 86th after some less-than-convincing marking from trainee Yaşar Mustafayev.
Tian had a final chance going over the crossbar, as
Remco van der Ban and
Dan Seng strolled in to see it out.
