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Qiu maintains hot streak to keep Stags five ahead
Cheryl Lim
info@sleague.com
Qiu Li struck the target for the sixth consecutive Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League match as Tampines Rovers and Etoile played out to a 1-1 draw in an explosive encounter at Tampines Stadium on Monday evening.
The result was enough for Tampines to maintain their five-point advantage over the French side atop the league table, and there was more misery for the visitors as coach Patrick Vallee was asked to leave the bench in the closing minutes and defender Mansour Lakehal was shown the red card after the final whistle.
The Stags had taken the lead on 23 minutes through a well-placed free kick by Qiu, only for Flavien Michelini to cancel it out with an unbeatable shot four minutes from time to ensure both sides went home with a point each.
Tampines might have spurned a good chance to increase their lead at the top of the table to eight points, but coach Vorawan Chitavanich was satisfied with his charges’ overall performance.
“We played better than the other team, and we showed we can play football,” remarked the Thai, proud of his team’s work if not the result.
“The second half was very rough. In the end we made some mistakes in defensive discipline when we wanted to clear and hold balls.”
They might not have kept the points in the second half, but the first half was all about Tampines.
The hosts fired the first warning of the game three minutes after kickoff, after a good one-two between Aleksandar Duric and Qiu saw the latter passing it backwards to Akihiro Nakamura, whose first-time volley went comfortably into the arms of Yohann Lacroix.
Doing well enough to contain their opponents’ forays and lookng effective in controlling the midfield, Tampines then had close-range efforts by both Duric and Ismadi Mukhtar within the first ten minutes, even though both did not succeed in giving the Stags an early lead.
With forward Khairul Amri still finding his way back to match fitness, the speedy Aliff Shafaein, who retained his place in the starting eleven ahead of Amri, was the constant livewire for Tampines as he glided through the Etoile defence on numerous occasions with split-second sprints to test Lacroix.
In one instance on 15 minutes, “the Little Master” managed to squeeze in a shot in a crowded penalty box, forcing Lacroix to block it out late on for a corner.
It was this type of frustration that Etoile faced as they conceded a free kick at the edge of the box with 23 minutes played, after Loic Leclercq brought down Nakamura.
Qiu completed the job for his team with a curling shot which went precisely into the top left side of goal, thus maintaining his 100% record in scoring in every league game this season.
It was the best form he had seen since transferring to the eastern outfit from Home United two years ago, and the goal demanded a response from the League Cup winners.
Etoile piled on the pressure and aggression immediately after the restart as they went in search of the equalising goal, but they were effectively contained by a determined Tampines side which continued to enjoy more ventures up front.
It was not until the added period of the first half that Stags goalkeeper Hassan Sunny faced his first real test, as he punched out Karim Boudjema’s direct free kick for a corner after the latter was brought down by leftback Ismadi.
Hassan effectively kept the resulting corner away too, to ensure Tampines went into the break with a slim but important one-goal lead.
The Stars brought on crowd favourite Michelini upon the start of the second half, the winger replacing Leeroy Anton Matesanz in the middle of the park.
They started the period brightly, seeing Boudjema’s harmless-looking goalbound curl kept out excellently by Hassan with the end of his fingertips just two minutes after the restart.
Temperatures on the field rose as Etoile increasingly found their way through the tight Tampines side, and as frustrations got to the better of the players, referee P. Pandian had no choice but to start pulling out yellow cards from his pocket, starting with Leclercq after a clumsy challenge on Duric on 51 minutes.
A series of outright attempts from the French side within three minutes prompted Hassan to show his best, as he managed to keep Michelini and Boudjema from levelling.
The tensions on the ground meanwhile kept building amid more and more direct clashes, and Benoit Croissant, the only Frenchman wearing the yellow of Tampines, entered the referee’s notebook next on 57 minutes after bringing down Matthias Verschave on the right.
His teammate Qiu was not spared either, earning his booking after he walked off the field too slowly for the liking of some Etoile players when he was replaced by Amri on 68 minutes.
That incident itself almost had a few Etoile players starting to go physical on their hosts, as Verschave was left unpunished for shoving Qiu along on the latter’s way out.
More drama ensued as Andrea Damiani and Amri clashed outside the 18-yard box eight minutes later, leading to the former booked and Shukor Zailan taking the resulting free kick, which was well kept out by the Stars defence.
Damiani was already the third man in the book for Etoile, after Michelini had picked up a booking as well, but that hardly seemed to persuade them to show better behaviour on the field.
They did manage some football along the way, and Hassan had to be called into the action once again on 83 minutes, this time diving bravely to push Cyril Bagnost’s free kick out after substitute Seiji Kaneko had felled Michelini.
Hassan’s one blemish on the night came three minutes later, when Michelini fired an unbeatable from the edge of the box following a neat pass from Boudjema.
The ball floated past everyone in the crowd into the back of the net, much to the delight of the vocal travelling fans.
The goals were done, as it later transpired, but the soap drama was not, as Pandian sent Vallee to the stands in injury time when the latter had repeatedly strayed out of his technical area and hurled his comments onto the field.
Even after blowing the final whistle, Pandian’s job was still not done, as some scuffles broke out midway through the customary post-match handshake.
The man voted Referee of the Year last season was forced to pull out his red card for Lakehal, identified as the main culprit in the incident.
A top-of-the-table clash this match should have been, and for the most part Tampines lived up to it as they played some of their best football in years, much to the delight of the home fans as they denied Etoile the pleasure of ending their unbeaten run in the league.
Sparks and fireworks lighting up the arena also made for some good memories for some, even if the fracas late on may have added a dark touch that could have been done without.
Yet even that drew a response from Etoile chairman Johan Gouttefangeas, eager as ever to steal a few seconds in the limelight.
“It is the top-of-the-league clash, there’s bound to be lots of tension. This happens all the time,” he claimed.
Looking at his players as they made their way to the dressing room, he then offered a cheeky attempt to make light of the late affair.
“I hope you enjoyed that show!” |
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