Villains Tear Through
Chardon Sublime
Grilled lost the battle but limped unconvincingly on in the war, as they went through to the knockout stages despite losing 3-4 to Villains F.C. in the last group game. French forward Pierre Chardon was resplendent in Villains' distinctive yellow-and-checkered top as he underscored his deadliness with three goals from as many shots, but the Birds refused to give up the ghost, and secured advancement with a mapcap late assault.
Villains' relatively underpowered midfield had been their downfall in their previous matches, and it would be no different today. However, they were packed with quality in the other positions, with goalkeeper Hilario Aguilera, winger Balbino Breixas and striker Julien Picque all unlikely to look out of place in a top-flight side. And, of course, there was Chardon.
Needing a win, the Villains approached the game with a very positive mindset, and found pace a great weapon against Grilled's famously-sparse back end.
Low Aik Jia disappointingly didn't even try to follow Vittorio Martorella after the latter had sped past him in the tenth minute, and it was only through sheer luck that Picque didn't find the net.
Grilled would always get chances with their possession, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim opened the game up, as he bullied his way past Chua Hock Qiang to score minutes later. However, ownership of the match then passed to Chardon, who equalized in the 19th minute with an extremely clever effort from the edge of the penalty area, which bent inside the post at the last instant.
Chardon then followed that with a stupendous spin to throw countryman
Clément Meyer off his balance on Villains' next attack, which opened up the entire box for his taking.
Wong Tian Han attempted to shepherd Chardon to the side, but Chardon was not having any of that, and proceeded to dribble past Wong's lunge for a memorable second goal.
Grilled were at a loss facing Chardon's inestimable inventiveness, and could only watch on as he orchestrated a third. Forcing Grilled's defence inside to guard against him, he opened up the entire left side for Breixas, and the Spaniard duly put his strike right inside the near bottom corner.
Having achieved what they had set out to do, Belgian coach Javier Méndez Mora drew his wingers back, and their pace proved more than sufficient to shut the Birds' own forays down. The Birds hummed along unproductively, and Mohd Safri's fine 56th minute strike would be rejected by Aguilera, who got his leg out right on cue.
Chilean captain Maurino Rengifo left to much applause in the 77th minute as Villains prepared to celebrate a very unlikely qualification, assuming Arrogancae continued to hold their lead against singnet_utd. They would thereafter burst into full voice, as Chardon polished off another break down the left by Martorella with just seven minutes remaining.
The mathematics was clear - if Arrogancae held on for the win, Grilled had to score at least two more to get by on goal difference. This was a daunting task, given how pedestrian they had been through most of the match, but then up stepped
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim to supply one of those two with a beautiful lob over Aguilera.
Villains were taken aback, having been rolling along so comfortably despite giving up possession, and it was now Grilled who were roaring for the critical final minutes. The tempo of the game exploded, as the Birds began picking their plays on instinct, and the Villains players tried to contain these near-fevered passes and runs by gathering in their own final third.
It was to no avail as Grilled's forcing of the pace paid off, and
Low Aik Jia made his first true contribution of a forgettable outing, as he finally got the better of Martorella before assisting
Chow Ying Lee for the Birds' ultimate objective - a third goal.
Djan Bacelar immediately tried to drag it out with a call for Low to be substituted, but he would have to wait almost until injury time, as Villains attempted a comeback of their own. Sadly, they made the mistake of losing it to
Tian Yonghang in the build-up, and Grilled's canny skipper wasted no time in taking it to the corner flag.