Arna-Bjørnar Hang On
Piec Picks Off
Grilled might yet rue not finishing off Norge opponents Arna-Bjørnar Fotball when they had the chance, as they ran up a two-goal lead against Arna twice, only for them to claw their way back with admirable tenacity each time.
Arna were not to be underestimated, however, having ran up four against the AirDragons, and it was rightly an unchanged side that lined up against the Birds. Grilled made no changes other than dropping
Lin Jungui for
Walter Ross, but the ramifications were yet to be dissected by the commentators when the ever-hungry
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim huffed to scramble in an opportunistic Djekshenkulov cross.
Grilled were pressing the advantage excellently, with
lu Zunwen leaving Arna golden boy Geir Eriksen something to remember him by after a hearty studs first challenge in midfield. Referee Lai Haian couldn't let that one slide, though Grilled stayed with their hard tackling, and
Chow Ying Lee fed
Tian Yonghang for a breakaway second.
Qassem Madaini, becoming oddly venturesome in recent outings, then had what would have been a killer blow whistle wide, which was the cue for Eriksen to pull his team out of the mire with a delicious feint to throw
Dexter Stacey off in the 31st minute. Now a goal to the good, Arna were up for it and aimed for an immediate leveller, but big Harry Garvik's fall inside the box was too contrived for Lai's tastes, and brought him the game's second yellow card.
The equaliser did come in a flash, as former U-20 star Bendik Dreyer was perfectly placed to ring in one of his trademark mighty headers, peeling off Madaini on the left. However, he had barely recovered from his celebrations when the Birds were ahead again, with Chow opting to go it himself this time. Dutch import Jon Toren made a valiant effort at keeping up with him, but Chow's advantage of initiative was too great.
It is said that speed cannot be taught, and Chow reaffirmed just how valuable it can be as he tore away again to make it 4-2 four minutes after the restart, just like that. The match appeared Grilled's for the taking, especially with caution levels remaining high.
Paolo Iten found himself in the book for a mistimed challenge, after the Arna players complained about one given to Christer Bjørge earlier for a similar botch.
The unpredictability of football however came to the fore as Garvik's foil Nils Hansen was alert to a half-clearance off right winger Bård Furuseth's medium-height cross, and got a knee to it. However, a controversial soft second yellow for Bjørge followed, and he had barely removed himself from the pitch when Eriksen upended
Zhu Changchun in the heat of the moment. That was possibly deserving of a sending-off, but Lai applied some restraint in flashing a yellow.
The live commentators were again beaten to the punch, as they were just done explaining why Arna might have thrown the match away when the ball somehow trickled through to Polish centreback Jan Piec after it was returned from a poor free-kick. Piec kept his wits about him to slip it past Stacey, and suddenly it was game on again.
Tian Yonghang would do well to learn from Piec, as he was caught in two minds which side to go to after being played through on the left. Stanca made it clear that he expected all three points with his bold substitution of Djekshenkulov for newcomer
Shiya Shaahee, but the Maldives winger, while fair enough at getting by his man, was unable to come up with the end product.
