Cards For The Win
Grilled head coach
Tian Yonghang would again be disappointed by the trainees, as they lost to an at-best evenly-matched side, that they held several key advantages over. "They double-teamed Chan throughout, and had Shuffler sent off towards the end of the first half, so that's a two-man advantage for the second half at least. And we still went 0-3 behind. It's not a good look, that's all I can say."
Tian did fete
Chia Kwang Tse for his contributions. "Chia really put himself on the line today, he never faltered in midfield despite things often not going his way, and not being entirely on form. He seriously deserved that goal. Fortunately, the doctors think it's just a slight bump to the head that he took, so he should be back in training by Monday."
Former Luxembourg Coupe Diekirch winners NSF Lëtzebuerg got one over Farmer Bunnies at Carrot Field, in what might well be unused substitute
Djoko Tambusai's last outing in a Buns jersey. This match would be a stalemate for the first hundred minutes, but certainly did not want for action, with at least ten good chances recorded - and oft saved spectacularly - in that period.
As with the Birds, Farmer Bunnies would be a man up after Ernest Kieffer got sent off in the 68th minute for picking a fight off the ball with
Billy Camperio, and NSF Lëtzebuerg would collect three yellow cards otherwise, as they were not afraid to bend the rules in search of an advantage. That would eventually come their way, soon after
Xue Kangfang got injured with the Buns having used all three subs; Erik Klaas then came in from the right to slot it past
Gabriel Luke.
Li Xin Chi would be the Man of the Match against Senegal II.1 guests Veni,vidi,vici in an 8-2 whopping thanks to his hat-trick, with
Chua Jun Long not too far behind with two excellent goals. The visits did best around the half-time interval, with Issalaye Bangonine and then Hubert Rekus making it 4-1 and 5-2 respectively, although it didn't stick obviously.
Wang Hanxuan congratulated Li on his achievement, and expressed his hopes that the 27 year-old could take on the mantle of being one of International's main senior strikers, come the next season. "He's been waiting a long time to make that step up, together with Chua and Tibor. From what I see, there's nothing to stop him!"
