Grilled Birds 4 - 2
Breg 
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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 56 | W | 1 - 5 | Tournament (Playoffs) | | Season 56 | W | 3 - 2 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Regular Tuning
No Feeling Sorry
Several seasons after losing out in the Rook&Bishop tournament final, Slovenian club Breg returned to challenge the Birds after picking up the national cup shortly after that defeat, but fared no better either this time. For this exhibition, Grilled made it a point to keep the same lineup from then, save for
Rashid bin Ahmad in for the injured
Ling Fuquan, while the red-shirted visitors paraded several new faces, most notably the talented Sandi Razdrih. Breg legend Mihael Starčič, who scored both their goals in their Cup final victory, was however absent due to a knock, which was regretted by all.
Despite both teams arguably having hit their highs since that tournament, the game was no less ardently contested, with Grilled conceding the initiative as is their habit nowadays.
Gene Filippone has much to address, with his spate of elementary errors in the first few minutes drawing much groans from the gallery, and he was fortunate that
Wong Tian Han was there to bail him out with a terrific stop from Dominik Zatolak's snap free-kick.
The Birds were not convincing in defence at all, and it was merely a matter of when Breg would make their breakthrough. It turned out to be after fifteen minutes, when Miloš Rožman set French winger Érik Bigotte up on the left. The angle didn't look suited for a crack at goal, but Bigotte wasn't about to be shy, and he somehow managed to squeeze a wonderstrike in.
Grilled seemed to wake up after that, and while there was still not much flair to be found, they were at least beginning to get the basics right. This was enough to earn an indirect free-kick some forty yards out, which turned into a bona-fide chance with
Zhao Jing Wei lifting it expertly into the penalty area. Rusmin Delavec could only hit it up against
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, and
Rashid bin Ahmad's spray-and-pray effort wound up spiralling past Ali Hacil.
Breg kept the Birds at bay for the remainder of the first half, and the match only really restarted when
Clément Meyer entered for Zhao during the interval. With places in the starting midfield up for grabs, Meyer was among those most eager to impress, and that he did by picking out Mohd Safri's run from the right side within minutes; Mohd Safri did the rest.
Capped forward Matteo Dimai was a constant threat for Breg, but
Rashid bin Ahmad proved surprisingly resilient, and
Wong Tian Han had relatively little to do. After a long lull, Grilled began going on the offense again, and they beat the opposition with measured pace in the 72nd minute.
Chow Ying Lee made the first break, before leaving
Tian Yonghang to make it 3-1 on the second wave.
The Grilled captain was certainly in need of some perking up after his missed spot kick caused the Birds to be relegated yesterday, though he never quite exactly looked down in his overall gait. Right after
Clark Won came on for
Low Aik Jia in the 80th minute, Tian broke the offside trap smartly off
Woon Shun An's long throw-in, and displayed good composure to get Hacil to go to ground before going around him.
Breg had the last word, as Dimai earned grudging recognition for his out-of-the-world feint to place Shlomo Azran's centered ball past
Wong Tian Han with five minutes left, but they never came close to taking this one.
