Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Hong Kong: AFC Champions League qualification hopefuls Kitchee bounced back after consecutive defeats at the hands of Eastern Athletic with a convincing 4-1 victory over YFCMD (Yokohama FC Modic) in their Round 8 clash in the Hong Kong Premier League on Wednesday.
Kitchee, who lost to Kitchee in the HKFA Senior Shield final to Eastern before the same opposition consigned them to their first league defeat of the season in the previous round, took an 11th minute lead at the Mong Kok Stadium when midfielder Xu Deshuai bagged the first of his double.
AFC Foreign Player of the Year 2014 nominee Juan Belencoso (pictured celebrating a goal in the 2014 AFC Cup) made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute before Xu’s second on the half-mark give Kitchee a comfortable three-goal cushion to take into the interval.
Brazilian striker Paulinho Piracicaba made it 4-0 in the 65th minute before Guinean forward Mamadou Barry scored a consolation for YFCMD to deny the 2014 AFC Cup semi-finalists a clean sheet.
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: WSG