Edgar Bruno hat-trick puts Thunder Castle back on top
Brazilian Edgar Bruno da Silva scored a hat-trick as Buriram United reclaimed the top spot in Thai League 1 with a 4-2 victory away at Pattaya United last night.
The Thunder Castle’s tally improved to 38 points as they shunted Bangkok United back to No.2 spot in the table in less than 24 hours. Bangkok United are two points adrift of defending champions Buriram.
This latest development is bad news for those hoping to derail the northeastern giants’ campaign as Buriram can now focus on domestic tournaments after their exit from the AFC Champions League.
Buriram attacked from the start and by half-time they were enjoying a two-goal advantage secured by their prolific striker Edgar Bruno, who then drilled home his third goal before the 60-minute mark.
After Picha Au-tra had pulled one back for Pattaya, Diogo Luis Santo tapped home a pass from Supachok Sarachart to make it 4-1. Charoensak Wongsakorn picked up a consolation goal for the hosts during the four-minute injury time.
At PAT Stadium, hosts Port ran riot as they pulverised Navy 7-1.
Dragan Boskovic scored a second-half brace and Sergio Suarez, Yusef Dolah, Pakorn Prempak, David Rochela and South Korean Kim Sung-Hwan all joined the goalfest by netting one each.
Navy’s only goal was scored by Jun YiQuak late in the first half.
SCG Muang Thong United, buoyed by a Heberty Fernades hat-trick, rallied from a two-goal deficit to edge Sukhothai 4-3, while two goals from Diouf Bireme gave struggling Chainat a 3-1 shock win over PT Prachuap.
Daniel Rodriguez scored the winning goal for Bangkok Glass, who edged Suphanburi 1-0 last night.
In Saturday’s late game, 10-man Police Tero conceded two injury-time goals to go down 3-2 in an intense battle at Ratchaburi.
Michael N’dri converted an eighthminute penalty to put Police ahead, but the advantage was cancelled out by Soo Il-Kang of Ratchaburi. The visitors were quick to regain the upper hand as Marcos Vinicius struck.
Police were dealt a big blow a couple of minutes into the second half when Nopphon Ponkam picked up his second yellow card of the night and was sent off.
Police kept their composure until the start of the injury time when they saw Ratchaburi steal the match away from them through goals by Philip Roller and Nattawut Sombatyotha.