Gig Over
Fuquan Foolish
Grilled Birds began their Champions League tournament group stage adventure with a disappointing loss to Polish Division Four opponents gigole, who plundered three goals in as many minutes in a frantic conclusion to the first half.
Ling Fuquan's dismissal in that period of madness made a possible recovery that much more tenuous, and although
Tian Yonghang got one back in a vintage personal display late on, it remained insufficient.
Head coach
Djan Bacelar had enrolled the Birds in the 64-team competition as a diversion from their unremarkable league fortunes, but it was questionable if it had the intended effect. gigole for their part had been unbeaten in their last nine games in all competitions, and in Piotr Kalfas, had an inventive and unorthodox Number Ten to develop their attacks, to Ling's downfall.
Grilled took some time to discover that, as they accepted gigole's invitiation to go at them in the opening stages. Their choice became evident as their back four blunted almost all incoming attacks gracefully, only to be undone in the 18th minute when
Tian Yonghang sashayed past a bemused Emil Aleksiejew. He then appeared to pull his strike slightly wide, but goalkeeper Eguzki Aretxalaga dove for it nevertheless, and would up clawing it straight into the oncoming
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, and thence into his own net.
Mohd Safri celebrated that one with a little less vim than usual, but if he expected more soon, it was not forthcoming. gigole's defence only got more watertight, and Aleksiejew in particular had
Ang Leong Kum in his pocket. This led directly to their 41st minute equaliser, which had Aleksiejew spray a tremendous ball over half the length of the pitch to Kalfas, who kept his nerve to knock it square for Gniewosz Zydulak to convert.
The Birds were still asleep as gigole sprang foward from the restart, and were left pointing fingers when Feliks Kolecki launched a stunning missile into the far top corner from outside the penalty area. From their gestures,
Zhu Changchun and
Lee Lee Hao were accusing each other of not closing Kolecki down, with
Wong Tian Han not even bothering to intervene.
It then all exploded after a breathless minute, which had Aretxalaga come up with a magic save against
Woon Shun An's point-black effort, before Marvin Gordon Waydtmann headed the corner clear to the half-way line, where it was collected by Kalfas. The nimble forward took Ling all the way to the byline before nicking it back for Aleksiejew, who somehow managed to hit it against
Wong Tian Han and out.
Simultaneously, Ling would take offence at Kalfas deliberately stepping over him as both recovered, and impulsively yanked him to the ground by his leg. The linesman saw that and immediately flagged for an offence, Ling was unceremoniously booted out, and to top it off, gigole extended their lead from the corner in stoppage time through Zbigniew Molas.
Tian Yonghang did try to have a few words with the match officials after the half-time whistle was blown, but was waved off. This left the Grilled skipper to try and gain recourse with his feet, and he began the second half with a dedication that was second the none. More than that, he had the skills to back it up with, and nearly single-handedly turned the match on its head.
Unfortunately, Eguzki Aretxalaga had greatly improved too, and the Spanish goalie demonstrated why gigole had paid former Croatian cupwinners FC Treviso 1890 almost nine million for him. Not many could have stopped Tian's terrific chip in the 48th minute, and even fewer could have gotten that reaction save off with the ball already past him five minutes later, but Aretxalaga managed both stops in style.
Even when Aretxalaga seemed finally beaten when
Wong Ping Shun dashed past in the 63rd, he had Romanian centreback Andrei Ciupercă sliding in to block, and the few hopeful Grilled diehards who had made the trip began to cool. Piotr Kalfas for his part remained a thorn in the Birds' sides up top, and
Clément Meyer had a torrid time trying to keep him under wraps.
A double substitution that brought in
Rinor Isufi and
Clark Won in the 80th minute did refresh Grilled's tired offense, and Isufi made an immediate impact with a fine assist for Tian to finally get the better of Aretxalaga. That was it however as the peach-clad gigole whiled the remaining minutes away, to record a very useful three points.
