Marco Mapped
Ola Ola
Grilled booked their passage into the final sixteen with a brilliant display of attacking soccer against one of the mightiest defences that they have ever faced. Marcochow's five-man backline forced Joker 9 into a penalty shootout in the last round, but Martinsson's triumphant return to Cup action was too much for them to bear.
Kept under wraps for the first six rounds in deference to his aging legs, Martinsson spent just two minutes before unlocking the much-vaunted Macrochow defence. He had Kadak and Hjortlind to thank for closing down Liu Young-Soo's partners, but his anticipation of Liu's turn was wholly due to his own experience.
Embarassing the 22 year-old centerback with his neat tackle, Martinsson accelerated unhesitatingly towards ex-Guatemalean U-20 goalkeeper Alex Infante and casually swiped a low shot under the S$5.5 million star. The crowd at Chow's Fortress had not got worked up enough to be considered silenced, but it was eeriely quiet for a moment. It was also the Swede hitman's 250th career goal, though not all of them for Grilled.
Sid had Infante diving into a superb save with a free-kick curled around the wall, as Grilled coped well with Macrochow's increasingly physical approach. Their big Danish striker Laurids Bakkeskov got the worst of a collision with Bona, and veteran German forward Felix Mathes-Schmidt was called from the bench to replace him.
Macrochow's first real attack came in the 22nd minute, as Kek-Tjiang tripped their captain Ola Skogskär on a potentially dangerous break. Regular free-kick taker Xing Cheng-Chi took it quickly as Sulaiman was still protesting, but thankfully for Grilled his clever lob spun wide of the net.
The cards and injuries began to pour in, as first Benjamin Sonderhausen was booked for a clumsy forward's challenge on his countryman
Fabian Bona. Midfielder Björn Nyborn pulled up with a hamstring strain and went off for Mattias Olofsson, while Hjortlind had a header on target held by Infante.
Only one goal behind, Macrochow needed just one successful counterattack to hold on for extra time, but a moment of madness by young local defender Vidarbh Sharma made their task that much more difficult. Under no pressure and with a clear field ahead of him, Sharma elected to square the ball across defence - right into the path of a relaxing Martinsson.
Sharma went white-faced as the Swede was off like a flash, and in the ensuing one-on-one Martinsson's truckload of experience again told against the relatively callow Infante. Martinsson drew the goalie to one side, then waited for the inevitable lunge, dodged it and deposited the ball into goal unruffled.
Marcochow now had to attack in earnest to have any chance of progressing, but Grilled were understandably not eager to venture out with the result in the bag. Wee Wai Kong got a yellow card as he struggled to come to terms with Han Kok's movement, then van Liere should have made it three if not for an outstanding block by Faziallah bin Musa.
No matter, as Sid dribbled his way past one man before letting loose a missile into the top corner just four minutes later to finish things. Faziallah had an attempt coming off the crossbar in Macrochow's best chance of the day, before substitute Mattias Olofsson brought their unhappy day to an end with a third booking.
