Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Hong Kong: AFC Champions League 2015 qualification hopefuls Kitchee were beaten by Eastern Athletic for the second time in a week after the AFC Champions League 2015 qualification hopefuls followed up the 3-2 loss in the Senior Shield final with a 3-1 reverse on their return to Hong Kong Premier League action on Saturday.
Croatian attacker Miroslav Saric, who scored two of Eastern’s three in last Saturday’s trophy win, opened the scoring at the Mong Kok Stadium after 32 minutes and while Brazilian striker Paulinho Piracicaba equalised in first-half stoppage time further goals from Liang Zicheng (72nd) and Australian Dylan MacAllister, another scorer in the Senior Shield triumph, as the current Hong Kong league leaders consigned the defending champions to their first defeat of the season.
Eastern’s two victories followed a 1-0 extra-time win in the FA Cup in May last year and with two 2-2 draw in the league prior to that, Kitchee have not got the better of Eastern since September 2013 when they won 3-0.
Kitchee face a tough trip to Thailand to face Chonburi in Preliminary Round 2 of the ACL qualifiers on February 10 with the winner taking on Kashiwa Reysol in Japan a week later for a place in Group E of the AFC Champions League.
Should Kitchee lose at any stage of the AFC Champions League qualifiers then they will have the consolation of a place in this year’s AFC Cup, with the reigning Hong Kong Premier League champions drawn in Group F where East Bengal of India, Singapore’s Balestier Khalsa and either Johor Darul Ta’zim or Selangor depending on whether or not JDT can successfully negotiate their ACL preliminary round matches.
Photo: HKFA