Grilled Birds 2 - 3 Dragon Devil's
Cup (Round of 32), Season 9029 January 2025 04:30 HTT
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SCORING SUMMARY
Grilled BirdsDragon Devil's
Chia Kwang Tse (53)
Paulino Trindade (54)
Ow Boon Huat (19)
Li Jun Chuan (76)
Megat Amir Faisal Norshahrul Idlan (77)

FIXTURE HISTORY
Season 83L0 - 2Cup
Season 70W1 - 2Cup

Devil's Due
Got By Megat

II.4 club Dragon Devil's won 3-2 in their fourth round Singapore Cup fixture against the Birds, making it two out of three in cup competition for this series. Grilled would rue sloppy finishing in a matchup that they were very much favoured by bookies to take, but retain the consolation that they will be able to defend their Sapphire Challenger Cup trophy.
The club's last meeting seven years ago saw Fan Keong Jing and Wan Abu Bakar Taha score the two goals that put them through, but neither would be involved today with new Swiss head coach Florian Piednoël having refreshed the squad. 28 year-old former national youth forward Ng Woon Woon would lead the line with juniors Mansor Safir and Chirag Moola in midfield, as Piednoël honoured the Devils' tradition of developing their own stars. They were not against outside recruitment to shore up the teamm, of course, and 31 year-old Benin sweeper Edoe Lakoussan skippered their side, with Portuguese veteran Ângelo Jorge Figueiredo keeping goal.

Tian Yonghang saw little reason to change his usual cup complement, though several Birds players had been observed to be slightly off form, from their open training sessions. There was scarce indication of that as they absolutely battered their opponents in the opening ten minutes, and were arguably unlucky not to score. Hwang Teck Fu would be barely turned back several times in the seventh minute, Ha Qicai pounced it narrowly wide next, as did Chia Kwang Tse after a botched short goal kick.

That was the Devils' compact back three doing its job, and their careful approach proved correct as they then took the lead in the nineteenth minute, with their first shot on target. It was, in Dimitris Germanakos' defence, a quite exception one, that was destined for the roof of the net once it left Ow Boon Huat's boot. That sharpshooting ability had been a factor in his winning five caps with the Young Lions, after all.

The Birds were unable to mount a coherent response against their opponents' tight play, especially given the rain-sogged ground, and the Devils were happy to adjust for their part. José Errázuriz would advance to left wing with Ow falling back at the start of the second half, for example - but Piednoël might have miscalculated for once. While an accomplished defender too, Ow had perhaps internalized his offensive duties a bit too much, which left room at the back where the calmer Chilean had not.

This led to a sudden overturning of the status quo, with the Birds securing their equalizer seemingly out of nowhere, in the 53rd minute. Chad Thach was going nowhere with the ball with Moola latched onto him, but a slick backheel to Lim An Keng later, Chia Kwang Tse was through - and could not miss. A minute later, Grilled were ahead with Paulino Trindade swing in from the left just in time to meet Brian Reddy's inside run, which had the Grilled fans at Ballota Stadium on their feet.

Piednoël responded adroitly as he immediately threw Lau Boon Meng on for Mansor Safir, although it would take some time to stem the Grilled juggernaut. Indeed, fortune remained on the Devils' side as the Birds could well have extended their lead twice over, with Aw Keng Chuan's terrific boomer in the 74th minute only barely warded aside by Figueiredo. The resulting corner then saw Raúl Himadas' long delivery missed by both Mohd Marzuki Khairul and Poh Yeng Ming to fall neatly at Paulino Trindade's feet, but the winger rammed it off his own teammate, to his own anguish.

It only got worse for Trindade, as the rebound went right to Megat Amir Faisal Norshahrul Idlan, who had been hanging around the outside of the box in preparation for just such an outcome. The race was on, and while Grilled had the numbers advantage with four men retreating against the Devils' three-pronged rush, Li Jun Chuan managed to slip inside a wrongfooted Thach when it matter, and made it 2-2.

Amidst all the celebrations, Piednoël made his second tactical sub of Eelo Mattila for Moola, which turned out to be a masterstroke; Mattila went on to supply the assist for Megat with his first touch, and the Devils then ran the remaining fourteen minutes out, with professional elan.







      
     
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2016-08-01 00:37:41
anonymous: Thanks for the special mention :) I would just like to expre...
2015-08-17 18:50:02
anonymous: excellent read as always!- Yjorn
2015-06-13 03:08:41
anonymous: Rasha say
Thankssssssssssss
www.kfs.edu.eg
2014-12-14 16:56:39
gilbertlim: well, it seemed like that.
2014-12-12 18:26:33
anonymous: I didn't play a 4-5-2
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