Beetles hold on to hope for league crown

Beetles hold on to hope for league crown

Silva expects Buriram to slip up against Port

Chiang Rai United's Siwakorn Tiatrakul, right, competes against PTT Rayong.
Chiang Rai United's Siwakorn Tiatrakul, right, competes against PTT Rayong.

Chiang Rai United coach Ailton da Silva is keeping his fingers crossed after his team's 2-2 draw at PTT Rayong on Thursday night gave Buriram United a two-point edge in the final stretch of the Thai League 1 season.

The result has also helped Port to tie for second place with Chiang Rai. Both sides have 52 points with two matches remaining.

The Beetles allowed Rayong to rally twice and salvage a draw.

Bill Rosimar and Akarawin Sawasdee took turns on Thursday night to put Chiang Rai ahead only to see defensive blunders allow Rayong's Dennis Murillo and Anawin Jujeen cancel out their advantage on both occasions.

Silva is expecting a favour from Port when the league hostilities resume later this month.

All top-flight activities have been paused to allow the Thai national team to prepare for their third 2022 Fifa World Cup Asian Zone Group G qualifier with the United Arab Emirates on Oct 15.

Thailand currently lead the group standings with four points after a home draw with Vietnam and an away victory over Indonesia. They are followed by the UAE, the seeded team in the pool who have a match in hand, and Malaysia, who both have three points each.

"I am hoping that it will be a close battle between [hosts] Buriram United and Port on Oct 20 and that it will end in a draw," said Silva.

"That result would benefit us only if we beat PT Prachuap on the same day, but I am not expecting an easy game.

"As far as Chiang Rai United are concerned, we need to win both our remaining matches and hope that Buriram United lose points in one or both of their remaining two games."

In case, Chiang Rai finish tied with either Buiram or Port on points, they would walk away with the league title for the first time in the club's history as the Beetles have better head-to-head records against both teams.

"The league race will be decided on the final day," added Silva.

The league matches will conclude on Oct 26, when relegation-threatened Chiangmai host Buriram United, Chiang Rai travel to Suphanburi and Port take on Samut Prakan City at home.

Commenting on Thursday night's draw, Silva rued lapses in concentration towards the end of the match.

"It's a pity that we could only pick up one point from the match. We were aiming to claim three points from this trip to Rayong.

"We lost concentration easily towards the end of the match. We had several chances to score but we were not sharp enough in front of the net."

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