Written by: Muhammad Yazid

Brunei DPMM knocked Woodlands Wellington out of the StarHub League Cup in the quarter-final round as they made a comeback to clinch a 3-1 victory.

Roberto Alviz was the star of the game as he had a hand in all three goals scored during the final ten minutes, as he provided the crosses for Rodrigo Tosi’s brace and Adi Said’s goal to cancel out Chang Jo Yoon’s opener.

Coming into the game as runners-up of Group C, Woodlands had put up a performance filled with sheer determination and resilient defending right till the 80th minute, before collapsing to the Group D winners.

It was Woodlands who were presented with the first opportunity of the game, when Goh Swee Swee unleashed a 35-yard shot which sailed straight into Wardun Yussof’s palms, before Farouq Farkhan saw his shot miss the post by a whisker.

The Bruneians were not sitting back to defend and were trying to maneuver the ball all over the pitch, but were denied the breakthrough on most occasions thanks to the rock-solid defending of the three-man defence consisting of Walid Lounis, Bah Mamadou and Rosman Sulaiman.

DPMM could have opened the scoring when Azwan Ali beat the offside trap but could not beat Yazid Yasin as his one-on-one effort was saved by the legs of the goalkeeper, while Rodrigo Tosi’s two finishes flew over the crossbar and got palmed away by the custodian respectively.

DPMM were not keen in going to the dressing room with a stalemate and were forcing their way into the final third, but some last-gasp defending by Andy Ahmad denied them, as the winger cleared a header off the line.

Steven Kean’s side showed signs of sloppiness in the second half as they started to lose the ball unnecessarily and the Rams capitalised on it, putting themselves in the driving seat in the 56th minute through Chang.

Farouq cleverly released Moon Soon Ho on the left side and the South Korean whipped in a delightful in-swinging cross straight into the path of his compatriot, Chang, who had to outmuscle Boris Raspudic before heading it past Wardun.

The Wasps tried to respond with an equaliser, but Yazid had other ideas as he parried away Roy O’Donovan’s strike, before Tosi and substitute Adi saw their attempts fly the wrong side of the post.

DPMM trailed till the 80th minute, when they found the equaliser with a set-piece.

Alviz’s corner was well-met by Tosi at the near post as the forward clinically headed it into the back of the net.

Just five minutes later, the Wasps took the lead for the first time when Tosi completed his brace to head in a cross from Alviz.

Just when Woodlands were searching for the equaliser, DPMM killed off the game for them as Adi headed in another goal from Alviz’s cross once again.

Salim Moin’s side huffed and puffed till the final whistle but could do no harm as the referee blew the final whistle soon after to conclude the game.