Grilled Birds 2 - 1
Haha 
Two Is Enough
Haha Goes Aw
Haha's packed defence had been perhaps the Birds' greatest stumbling board in the contemporary era, with Grilled having lost three of their last four competitive meetings with the Woodlands club, including a Singapore Cup final.
Eren Serpin appeared to have finally conjured up a way to circumvent Haha's tack today - and it happened to be the application of yet more dakka.
That, and the beefing up of one's own backline. Recall, Grilled had scored at least twice in those four games, and pretty impressively given Haha's reputation, they had never kept a clean sheet in all ten of their previous fixtures against the Birds. The problem was that they had all too often managed to score even more against an overextended Grilled, and this, Serpin sought to fix by giving up a winger for an additional centreback today. As such, Panigrahi, Webb and Jeftić would start shoulder-to-shoulder, for probably the first time ever.
Otherwise, there was little remarkable about Grilled's lineup but for
Bilal Mohammad Harun's exclusion, as they sought to pack as much offensive power as possible into the remaining seven outfield spots. Whether this would be enough to humble a Haha that has been undefeated in the S-League thus far this season remained to be seen, and Salah Abd El Razzak kept with a 5-3-2 after flirting with a 5-2-3 in the midweek friendly at Kenya's FC Knuddel. Russian attacker and league top scorer Simon Mazlov was a surprise exclusion, as Salah entrusted the getting of goals to Giuseppe Ghiringhelli and Félix Valdayo instead.
The 2-4 defeat in the reverse fixture was still very much in Grilled's memory, and they made it a point to start as strongly as they humanly could, with the home fans treated to an extra-long pregame warm-up session; this seemed to work, and
Heng Dong Chu - starting his fiftieth match for Grilled - would revel in his assigned role of driving play forward. Haha would reveal their fangs too after Heng's first attempt four minutes in, though, as Valdayo cleverly played for the free-kick when surrounded. Aw Tian Jin stepped up to take it, but it went straight to
Jānis Salmiņš after clearing the wall.
Tension was certainly mounting despite it being so early into the game, and while the Birds were comfortably holding well over seventy percent of the possession, there was always the lingering feeling that Haha could turn it on them at the merest sign. An unplanned opportunity would fittingly be the one to undermine all this behind-the-scenes plotting, as
Chan Ze Han's pass was blocked by Roger Viroux - only to fall behind and right in between Aw and Parguiña. That instant of hesitation between the duo on who should be responsible was all
Vikram Mudaliar needed, as he sprinted between them to scoop it past Giuseppe Teani.
This was definitely a disappointing goal to give up, but Haha would not be given the time to reconstruct what had gone wrong.
Eren Serpin would very loudly urge them to continue striking while the iron remained hot, and the players sure took his advice to heart; the next sequence after Haha's short-lived attack from kick-off had
Chu Xin Lee mingling with the forwards, and he would be the man left out as Haha's defenders took their marks. Unfortunately for them, Chu was something than a potent finisher too, and it had to be 2-0 once he got played through by
Moey Xin Seng.
Two goals was more than what any of Haha's league opponents had managed against them in the more-recent half of the season, and Grilled Birds achieving it under sixteen minutes had to shake their self-belief somewhat. All eyes would turn to Serpin for his next instructions, on whether the Birds should cool off some and force Haha to come at them, but there didn't seem to be any indication of that sort. Grilled kept plugging away, and former local youth international Vishvesharaiyah Gudivada would soon have to retire with a twisted ankle, to be replaced by rising junior Isaac An.
The Birds did slow down a beat as the half wound on, all the more after
Gilbert Webb's thunderbolt onto the crossbar in the 30th minute, was turned into a half-chance for Ghiringhelli on Haha's counter down the left. Grilled would be more circumspect in patiently building their advances after that warning, and took their time shifting
Kalle ter Berg into his desired shooting position about five minutes later. The strike left nothing to be desired, but Giuseppe Teani again proved his worth by scrambling across goal for the save.
Chan Ze Han rang the second half in with a cheeky lob out from the blue, and was inches away from what would have been one of the goals of the season. That done with, it appeared that Grilled had resorted to the expected after all. There was honestly little call for them to expose themselves needlessly, not with a two-goal cushion, and recycling the ball with their defenders as often as possible had to be the prudent choice, with so much riding on the result. All three centrebacks were more than capable with ball at feet, after all, and it was up to Haha as to whether they would put more chips on the table.
The visitors were not too eager to rise to the bait, and the match entered a relatively quiet period, punctuated by
Wu Jinglong entering for
Heng Dong Chu in the 70th minute. They were very deliberately working the percentages here, and Valdayo showed himself to be an expert in earning free-kicks from seemingly-hopeless positions, as he did just enough to convince Norwegian referee Sander Gjetnes in the 79th. Aw Tian Jin went at it again, but couldn't keep it low enough on this occasion.
Chua Ze Xin would be booked next in bringing
Vikram Mudaliar down, and the Birds would cruise to the final minute with Haha never exactly letting loose, which had
Eren Serpin put
Bilal Mohammad Harun on for
Gilbert Webb to much cheering from the home crowd; with Gjetnes ordering just a minute of added time, surely the game had to be decided, and large swathes of the attendees had filed out to beat the traffic home.
They would however miss what had to be the most dramatic minute of the match, those encompassing Grilled's goals early on included, as
Kalle ter Berg could not help but try to go on a rampage for a third. This led into a huge goal kick as Haha threw everybody forward, and Issac An was left free with the ball. His shot was however not very good, and batted away by Salmiņš, only for
Bhavya Panigrahi to play it back to the goalkeeper with two Haha players breathing down his neck... and for Salmiņš to fall on the ball with Giuseppe Ghiringhelli bearing upon it.
This might have been an understandable choice given how much pressure Grilled's defence was under, but it remained that this also meant the rare sight of an indirect free-kick in the Birds' box. With it being so close, Grilled would essentially pack their goal with bodies as Aw had it teed up for him, and the Haha star would finally beat Salmiņš by finding space just beneath the crossbar.
