Blaichach Bested
Madaini Mirage
Qassem Madaini caused the few Grilled supporters who made the trip to Germany to do a double-take, as they witnessed the 36 year-old sweeper bang in a brace against FC Allgäu Blaichach. Together with two from
Chow Ying Lee, and one each from
Woon Shun An and
Zhu Changchun, this was sufficient to book the Birds' place in the knockout stage of Worldwide Allgäu-Guests III.
With this fixture originally scheduled to occur at the same time as Grilled's Hattrick Masters obligation, a rescheduling was agreed whereby the Birds played it on a stopover, some hours before travelling on to Luxembourg. This would no doubt place some strain on the players, but from the looks of it, they had been conditioned well for such an eventuality.
For all that,
Djan Bacelar left out Grilled's regular defensive pairing of
Ling Fuquan and
Gene Filippone, allowing Madaini and
Rashid bin Ahmad a run-out.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was again not even on the bench, as
Che Harun bin Sabtu led the Grilled line. Finally,
Krystian Rykowski made his first start in goal since his signing.
Blaichach arrived with a 4-4-2 that boasted of much pace down the sides, as epitomised by Bolivian captain Yukinaga Nakata on the right wing. Commentators warned of his prolific partnership with Swiss striker Eraldo Di Florio, whom Rashid quickly took to man-marking closely.
The German side had beaten colonel united handily enough last Monday, but were then shown up by a late assault from Traktor Kartoffelacker in the league, after going two up from Di Florio. Determined not to make the same mistake, they were cautious at the back, but hadn't counted on Chow's unfair acceleration; he blew past Manuel Gacki in the 20th minute to send Grilled ahead.
Di Florio threatened to even things out at the other end, and was only stopped with a slightly dirty tug from Madaini that was spotted by the referee. The free-kick was wasted, and a few minutes later
Zhao Jing Wei rocked the side-netting after a rapid advance from
Low Aik Jia. The ensuing counter however saw Nakata make his famed blitz straight up the same flank, and Heinz Fischel matched him step for step to put the cross in.
Qassem Madaini then earned a rousing cheer from the Birds support as he shrugged off the years with a slick turn that took him past Eugen Pils to gain Grilled the lead once more. Once more Blaichach answered, as end-to-end stuff from Henrico Thamm and Zhao respectively led to another trip from Madaini. He was spared a red, but Gacki made him pay nevertheless with a rocket of a free-kick that left Rykowski no chance at all.
Wong Ping Shun followed Madaini into the book, as Blaichach were the happier team at the break. After the interval, the German side were the more active and nearly edged ahead after Dimitris Stefanakis was left alone on yet another counter, but he shot wide. This time, Grilled would reply in kind, as Madaini hit it full on the volley to make it 3-2.
Blaichach had not had enough, and bounced back a third time -
Low Aik Jia's attempted cut inside was predicted by Eugen Pils, who dispossessed Low smartly before feeding Dimitris Stefanakis in the middle. Stefanakis wasted no time in helping the ball on to Di Florio, who split Grilled's defence down the middle before taking Rykowski out.
This was getting bothersome for the Birds, and the spectators had good cause to expect another reply after
Woon Shun An gave them the lead a fourth time in the 68th minute. Chow then sped through to give Grilled a cushion five minutes later, though, and once
Zhu Changchun worked his way inside for 6-3, the stage was set for a Grilled victory.
Indeed, Blaichach managed only one last counterattacking goal following Chow's hat-trick attempt being stopped by the crossbar, as Eugen Pils profited at the other end, and Grilled left hastily with the three points.
