Treble-winning Kitchee came up against Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur on Friday evening in the Jockey Club Kitchee Centre Challenge Cup. The local side gave it a good fight but somehow came up short against the visitors, dropping a 1:4 decision and losing out on the trophy. Despite facing against the Premier League runner-up Tottenham Hotspur, Kitchee still managed to generate early chances, with Helio Goncalves coming the closest to opening the score for the home side. Unfortunately, the towering defender saw his header cleared off the goal-line by Vincent Jenssen, keeping Kitchee at bay. Later in the first-half, it was Spurs that broke the game open, as Son Heung-min and Vincent Janssen both found the back of the net, making it a two-goal lead for Spurs heading into the interval. After the game resumed in the second-half, Kitchee also had opportunities to narrow the deficit. However, Alexander Akande was turned away, not once but twice, by Spurs players, preventing the home side from hitting the scoreboard. Entering the final stretch of the game, substitute Harry Kane found himself on the receiving-end of a teammate’s cross and coolly tapped in the ball, making it 0:3 for the London side. Moments later, Kitchee managed to answer back through an opportunistic Lucas Da Silva goal. Just when the game was heading to the end, Kazaiah Sterling completed the 1:4 score-line for Spurs with a late goal, as the visitors went on and lifted the Jockey Club Kitchee Centre Challenge Cup. Kitchee head coach Alex Chu talked about being pleasantly surprised by the Blues’ performance in the post-game press conference. “I was expecting us to be pinned down by Spurs, a side that finished second in the Premier League and possesses great firepower. However, we still managed to come up with several scoring chances during the game and it was quite a surprise,” Chu admitted. When asked about on-land striker Lucas Da Silva and the Brazilian’s performance, Chu pointed out that he expected a quick-tempo game, therefore spoke with the Brazilian forward ahead of the game and informed the latter that his playing time might be limited to around twenty minutes. Chu was pleased to see the burly striker executing tactical instructions to a tee and created danger for the opponent. In addition, with Da Silva on the cusp of joining Kitchee next season, Chu believes the striker will be a great help to his side especially when it comes to holding up the ball up-front, as it largely eases the workload of wingers such as Lam Zhi Gin and Fernando Pedreira.
On-loan striker Lucas Da Silva is delighted to find the back of the net on the very first time wearing the Kitchee uniform.
“Despite coming up short against Tottenham Hotspur, I am very pleased to be able to score against a very strong side in the English Premier League,” vowed the burly striker.
“Wofoo Tai Po offered me a great contract but Kitchee is the best club in Hong Kong and I also want to play in the AFC Champions League, therefore I decided to put pen on paper and signed with Kitchee for next season. I will now be heading off for a break and hopefully, come back stronger and fitter for Kitchee.”