Barbieri Bow Out
Thrice Caught Up
Though French Division Six side barbieri en france had already been eliminated before the kick-off, the Marseille-based club still spared no effort in their 1° Club World Cup farewell against the Birds, and equalised three times over the course of the match. Grilled had to wait until the 78th minute for the eventual winner, which finally put the brave challengers down for good.
Rashid bin Ahmad returned to the Grilled defence, while
Woon Shun An was scheduled a rest. For the opponents, a large section of their fans were chanting for weekend hat-trick hero Leonhard Bobsien to have another go, but Belgian head coach Dominic Wauman went with veterans Ben Bjelland and Alfredo Moniz in a 3-5-2 instead.
In any case, the barbieri forwards would have to wait to get a sniff of the ball, as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim made a strong bid to repeat his third-minute feat from the league, only to drag it marginally wide. No matter, as he got Grilled going some nine minutes later with a flashy volley from
Zhao Jing Wei's short cross.
This was the sign for barbieri to step up their game, and they were soon looking very smooth indeed - Spaniard Alfredo Moniz made
Clément Meyer do the twist with his dancing on the ball in the 18th minute, and immediately after played a give-and-go with Bjelland to open
Wong Tian Han up for the finish.
Grilled responded through
Tian Yonghang a bare four minutes later, but barbieri were unmoved, and Jacinto Manuel Xavier Santos's ice-cold on-the-ball skills baited Mohd Safri into getting booked. This confidence ran through the rest of their men, and Vahid Arefe would put it in off his own crossbar rebound, eight minutes before the break.
With Scorpions leading Thunnus in the other fixture, the Birds had a very real chance of topping the group, and drove forward in search of the points. Sure enough, Tian bundled the third in after several minutes of patient build-up, before
Rashid bin Ahmad pulled his shot badly wide as barbieri had their first real defensive lapse.
The Birds' impetus didn't last, and barbieri levelled for the third time off a magical pass from Malaysian winger Mohd Zaidi bin Saad. Despite being hemmed in by two markets, Mohd Zaidi dug out a low-flighted cross-field pass that went straight to Bjelland, who only had to get proper contact to send it beyond Wong.
It was looking increasingly likely that barbieri would actually steal it, seeing as how Grilled blew several wonderful chances, chief among them
Low Aik Jia's excellent shot on the run that beat everything but the woodwork. Moniz was piecing together some very interesting combinations for them, and an upset was hardly out of the question.
It took circumstances to expose their vulnerabilities for a fourth and final time, as barbieri unwisely committed too many men up top in search for their winning goal, after they got a free-kick on the half-way line off
Lee Lee Hao's careless clipping of Geoffroy Rambaud.
Unfortunately for them,
Rashid bin Ahmad met the floated-in kick with a huge clearing header, and after Santos failed to cut out Zhao's speculative forward lob with a premature jump, there was only Frans De Maeyer left to stop the onrushing
Chow Ying Lee. Chow was not entirely convincing with his strike, but it turned out to be enough.
There was a flurry of substitutes in the last few minutes as Grilled sought to see the time out, while barbieri threw Ângelo Jorge Teles in hopes of a miracle, but there would be none of that as they exited winless, but still justifiably proud.
