Muang Thong United and Buriram United secured identical 7-0 home victories against Chainat and Navy respectively in the Thai Premier League last night.
Buriram’s Gilberto Macena, left, in action against Chainat.
Buriram were the first to deliver the goal-fest as they catapulted themselves back to the top of the standings, although only for less than an hour.
Buriram had been overtaken by Muang Thong United on Wednesday when the Kirins edged past Port 2-1 to gain a one-goal advantage over the defending champions.
And when Muang Thong hammered Navy 7-0 in the late match last night, they regained the edge and were back to the top of the table.
Both sides have 53 points each after 23 matches.
Buriram have been mercilessly massacring their opponents with their earlier victims being Lamphun, who were trounced 7-1 in a lop-sided League Cup clash in midweek.
A win for Buriram was always on the cards but it was the sheer magnitude of their victory that left everyone awestruck — even if the first half didn’t provide any clues as to what was in store.
Buriram had captured a 2-0 lead by the end of the first half through strikes from Diogo Luis Santo in the 21st minute and Suchao Nutnum in the 41st.
Then the floodgates opened in the second half as Buriram’s legion of foreign players ran riot with Gilberto Macena picking up a hat-trick.
Buriram remained the dominant force in the second half and a
60th-minute long drive by Macena gave him the first of his three of the match.
Buriram grew stronger with the passage of every minute and there was little Chainat could do to stop the relentless attacks.
Theerathon Bunmathan crossed the ball and Diogo used his knee to bang the ball home to make it 4-0 to the hosts and barely a minute later, his Brazilian compatriot Macena curved the ball into the net again.
The sixth goal came during the last 10 minutes of the match through South Korean Go Seul-Ki and Macena completed both his hat-trick and the rout when Naruebodin Weerawatnodom set him up with a through pass in the 85th minute.
It wasn't just the scoreline that read the same for both matches, as the Muang Thong United versus Navy match followed a similar pattern as well.
Muang Thong also led 2-0 at half-time and smashed five past their rivals in the second half.
However, unlike Buriram, it was a duo of Thai stars who stole the limelight for Muang Thong United with Teerasil Dangda netting three and Chananan Pombupha scoring two.
The other two scorers for the league leaders were Macedonia's Mario Gjurovski and Brazilian Cleiton Silva.
Also yesterday, fourth-placed Bangkok United were held to a goalless draw by relegation-threatened Saraburi, while BEC Tero Sasana’s change in fortunes under new coach Manuel Cajuda proved short-lived as they conceded a late equaliser to draw Osotspa 1-1.
In another match yesterday, Ratchaburi were fancying a win away at Nakhon Ratchasima but squandered a two-goal advantage in the second half to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Ratchaburi went ahead in the 23rd minute with Heberty Fernandes scoring, and then, a few minutes before the half-time whistle, Wander Luiz Jr doubled the margin.
Three minutes into the second half Dominic Adiyiah pulled one back for the Swat Cats and Parinya Utapao produced the leveller in the 75th to earn his team one point.