DPMM FC striker Joao Moreira (L) eyes the ball during their 1-0 loss to Global FC in Wednesday's first leg of the Singapore Cup quarter-finals. The Portuguese scored in last night's second leg which ended 4-4. Picture: Courtesy of Singapore League
DPMM FC Striker Arturas Rimkevicius (No 12) being tackled by an Albirex Niigata FC (S) defender during an earlier game. Rimkevicius scored a brace to power DPMM FC to a 4-4 draw against Global FC last night. Picture: BT file
Ten-man DPMM FC went down fighting in last night's Singapore Cup quarter-finals after coming back from 4-0 down to draw 4-4 against Filipino side Global FC.
However, it was still the end of the road for Brunei's only professional club as they lost 5-4 on aggregate after Global won the first leg 1-0 via a 96th minute goal on Wednesday meaning that DPMM FC will have to continue their hunt for a semi-final berth next season.
Defender Pg Sallehuddin Pg Hj Damit was sent to the showers in the 87th minute after picking up his second yellow last night and DPMM FC head coach Vjeran Simunic felt that they could have evened things up had they not been at a numerical disadvantage at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.
"If we didn't lose Salleh then we could have got it to 5-4... We needed a bit more luck," Simunic told The Brunei Times after the game.
"We left things very open as we pushed forward in search of a goal in the first half, but instead we failed to score and our opponents went on the counter-attack and punished us.
"We changed our tactics after we got Santos (Brazilian central defender Tales Ricarte dos Santos) on in the second half and that managed to help our comeback," continued the Croatian.
Carlos de Murga had a big impact for Global after he claimed a first half hat-trick.
According to Goal.com's play-by-play, the midfielder gave the United Football League runners-up the lead after heading home a cross by Jeffrey Christiaens in the 20th minute.
De Murga netted his second of the game after a 37th minute counter-attack when De Murga flicked the ball to Joshua Beloya just ouside the box, with the latter then returning it to de Murga who calmly put it in at the bottom corner.
He completed his hat-trick just before the half-time whistle after Paul Mulders put the ball neatly into the box and de Murga made no mistake to slot it past Wardun Yussof in between the DPMM FC sticks.
De Murga provided Global's fourth goal after his cross from the right was headed home by Rufino Sanchez in the 55th minute, the Spanish forward also scoring the winning goal in Wednesday's first leg.
Lithuanian Arturas Rimkevicius started DPMM FC's comeback in the 62nd minute with a volley that went in off the underside of the bar after a knockdown from Brazilian attacking midfielder Rodrigo Tosi.
Dos Santos, who was on the pitch for literally 10 seconds and was playing as a striker, headed in an Azwan Salleh corner to make it 4-2 in the 68th minute.
Eduard Sacapano was sent on in place of Global's first choice goalkeeper Roland Sadia at that point, but that didn't prevent DPMM FC from scoring two more.
Rimkevicius scored his second after sliding home a through ball to make it 4-3 in the 82nd minute and Portuguese forward Joao Moreira got his name on the scoresheet three minutes later to tie things up at 4-4.
