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| AFC Cup |
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| Victory a surprise admits Zeise |
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| Head coach Gerd Zeise admitted the 2-1 victory over Kitchee, which ended New Radiant's AFC Cup winless streak at 14, came as a surprise |
MALE - New Radiant coach Gerd Zeise admitted his side's 2-1 win over Kitchee in their final game in Group E of the AFC Cup came as something of a surprise to the German.
Hugues Nanmi put the visitors ahead on the stroke of half-time but Hussain Shimaz levelled the score just after the hour before firing home the winner in the 64th minute to give New Radiant their first win in the AFC Cup for over two years.
Kitchee finished the match with only ten players after Li Hang Wui was sent off in the closing minutes after reacting violently to a foul by Mohammed Shifan.
The victory provided some consolation for New Radiant, who ended their campaign tied on four points with Kitchee although the Maldives side finished bottom of the group on the basis of head-to-head results.
"I am surprised," said Zeise.
"In the first half, my players were nervous but in the second half we tried to play a good game"
"The new players were nervous at first but later they found their confidence to play well."
Meanwhile Kitchee coach Alex Chu admitted his side couldn't play as well as they are capable of due to the weather conditions in Male.
The defeat was Kitchee's fourth in the competition and Chu admitted his players were feeling tired after a testing campaign.
"We are not happy because we lost the game," he said. "First half was ok, but the second half wasn't good".
"We played well in the first game (against New Radiant in Hong Kong) but today we couldn't mainly because of the weather.
"I didn't see mistakes from our players but the referee wasn't good.
"Today is our last game in the season, so our players were quite tired already.
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