Powerful Akande Header Seals Victory for Kitchee o

After grinding out a victory in the midweek AFC Cup opener, Kitchee returned to Mongkok Stadium on Sunday afternoon to play host to the visiting BC Rangers in the BOCG Life Hong Kong Premier League. Once again, Kitchee managed to dig deep and overcame its opponent 2:1, courtesy to timely goals from Rufino Segovia and Alexander Akande, while snatching three valuable points in the process. Under the passionate rallying cry from its supporters, Kitchee broke the game open on the 16th minute through a Rufino Segovia penalty and took the lead into half time. Keeper Wang Zhenpeng was kept busy at the start of the second half by dishing out some splendid saves to retain the lead for the Blue Army. However, there was not much the Kitchee keeper could do to prevent Mauricio Da Luz to equalize from close range on the 70th minute. The BC Rangers defender then dramatically received his second yellow card of the game and his subsequent marching order, giving Kitchee a numerical advantage on the pitch. Alexander Akande then went on and nailed down the victory for Kitchee by directing a powerful header towards the BC Rangers goal. Despite initially holding onto the ball, BC Rangers keeper Paulo Cesar let it slipped into the net and gifting Kitchee all three points. Alexander Akande spoke about the match-winner after the game in exciting manner. “It was a lovely header and look at the power that I had on it! It was no fluke at all and you can put that down on paper! BC Rangers is a good side and they played a very good game today, giving us some problems along the way. However, we managed to come through thanks to some wonderful team work and all credit to the team for doing well,” said the lanky striker. Kitchee captain Lo Kwan-yee admits the team’s fitness might be somewhat affected by the congested fixtures in recent days. “At one point, we struggled to secure the second goal of the game and that certainly made life tough for ourselves,” Lo assessed. “We have been playing in a lot of games recently and our fitness are generally okay. However, we really need to pay close attention to the matter, make sure we enter the remaining games in the best possible mental state and fight for the highest possible ranking.”