Kitchee Continues League Cup Winning Streak with C

Kitchee continued its sparkling form in the HKFA League Cup on Saturday afternoon with an impressive come-from-behind victory against fellow Group A side Kwoon Chung Southern. Despite allowing the opening goal in the first-half, Kitchee stormed back in the second-half with goals from Alexander Akande, Fernando Pedreira, Daniel Cancela and Sham Kwok-keung, overpowering the Hong Kong Island side 4:1 and making it three wins in a row in the League Cup group stage. Kitchee started the first-half quite well, using a combination of short and long passes to control the game and actually generated quite a few scoring chances. However, an opportunistic strike by James Ha in the first-half saw Kitchee falling behind heading into the interval. With a few substitutions made to start the second-half, Kitchee’s attack really soared to another level, with Alexander Akande first tying the game for Kitchee, while Fernando Pedreira’s majestic free-kick put his side in front afterwards. Daniel Cancela and Sham Kwok-keung managed to add their names onto the score-sheet late in the game, sealing Kitchee’s victory in the process. Kitchee head coach Abraham Garcia offered his assessment on the team’s performance after the full-time whistle. “We did not use the ball quite well at the start of the game but that really improved in the second-half. Winning by a 4:1 score is always a good feeling but after going winless over the past two games, this was a game that we really needed to win. I am glad the team performed up to its standards and did the job, allowing us to lock up a League Cup semi-final spot with a round to spare,” said the Spanish tactician. Full-back Daniel Cancela, who recently returned from an injury spell, managed to get himself on the score-sheet with a brilliant strike late in the game. The long-time Kitchee defender talked about the importance of the win over Kwoon Chung Southern. “Victory always makes things better for a football team. Although we fell behind early in the game, the players never lost faith and simply continued to work hard. That is an important trait for any footballer because as players, we really need to have confidence in both ourselves and our teammates,” offered the Kitchee left-back. “Players such as Lam Ka-wai and Sham Kwok-keung were brilliant today and that is the type of performance that we need from all the players.”