Kitchee Travels to Singapore for Clash with Balest

The steadily improving Kitchee will travel to Singapore and take on fellow AFC Cup 2016 Group F side Balestier Khalsa on Tuesday evening. With an opening 1:0 home victory against Kaya FC earlier, Kitchee currently finds itself at the top of Group F in this year’s AFC Cup tournament. Despite the need to travel to Singapore, Kitchee will feel confident about the matchup against Balestier Khalsa based on the home and away victories against the same opponent in last year’s group stage. However, mainstays such as Fernando Recio are still out with injuries and that might prove to be a valid question mark in Kitchee’s chances of returning home with all three points. Midfielder Ngan Lok-fung expresses his strong faith in the Kitchee squad yet mentions the current injury predicament within the team as a potential hurdle to overcome. “We defeated Balestier Khalsa twice last season and we should be the stronger team in theory. That is why we are going to go all out for all three points in this game, hoping to return home with maximum points,” Ngan declared. “However, the team does have a serious injury issue but hopefully, we can buckle down and come up with a victory on Tuesday night.” Striker Sham Kwok-keung indicates Singapore’s current climate might make things difficult for Kitchee. “Singaporean sides are not known for their speed but technically, they are still very solid. Hence we are not going to take Balestier Khalsa lightly at all,” Sham insisted. “It looks like Singapore is quite hot and humid at the moment and I believe that will make things rather challenging for us during match time.”