Swashbuckling Performance Saw Kitchee Walked over

Kitchee served up goals galore on Saturday’s League Cup semi-final against Eastern and thoroughly demolished its arch-rival 6:1, courtesy to a sensational four goal-performance by Rufino Sgovia, as well as two goals from strike partner Alessandro Ferreira. Kitchee took the game straight towards Eastern at the beginning and got rewarded instantly, as the blue army went in front barely 30 seconds into the game through an Alessandro Ferreira strike. The side then doubled its lead moments later, when Rufino Sgovia broke behind the Eastern defense, rounded keeper Yapp Hung-fai and calmly rolled the ball home. Sgovia bagged his second goal of the game afterwards and expanded Kitchee’s lead to 3:0. Eastern’s Roberto Affonso’s header late in the first half made things interesting for the spectators, as the two sides went for the half time break with Kitchee leading 3:1. Eastern came out for the second half strong and nearly found the back of the net again through a Xu Deshuai free-kick. However, Kitchee keeper Wang Zhenpeng managed to pull off a stunning one-handed diving save to keep Xu’s free-kick from heading into the net. Kitchee then went on and added two more goals through Alessandro Ferreira and Rufino Sgovia, establishing a 5:1 lead in the process. On the 82nd minute, Sgovia completed Kitchee’s demolition job with a fine blast inside the Eastern box, scoring his fourth goal in the game and capping off a memorable outing for Kitchee and its passionate supporters. Kitchee head coach Alex Chu admitted to being somewhat surprised by the margin of the victory but gave striker Rufino Sgovia a ringing endorsement. “We switched Rufino’s position in the lineup as he played a bit more behind the striker, offering him more chances to pick up the ball. I think the move was quite effective,” Chu assessed after the game. “This win has given the players a tremendous boost in confidence. Hopefully, we can all keep plugging along until the end of the season and make it a meaningful game when we next play Eastern in the final premier league match of the season.” Alessandro Ferreira, who bagged two goals in the memorable victory, believed finding the net early in the game was the key to winning. “We managed to break the game open with an early goal and that really dented Eastern’s confidence while boosting our own. With this convincing victory over Eastern, I hope we can keep up with the good work and do well in all of our remaining matches. Of course, winning the League Cup will also be very much in our minds,” said the lanky striker.