Kitchee Heads to Maldives for All Important AFC Cu

After successfully defending the domestic League Cup and snatching its first trophy of the season, Kitchee has headed out to Maldives for Tuesday’s battle against New Radiant in the AFC Cup Group F. After the first three games in Group F, Kitchee now finds itself sitting on the third spot with one win, one draw, one loss and four points. For a side that reached last year’s AFC Cup quarter final, the current standing has to be deemed less than satisfactory for the Blues. Kitchee actually faced New Radiant in Hong Kong on the previous AFC Cup match day and the Blues created chances after chances but simply failed to score, ended up drawing 0:0 with the visitors and dropping vital group points. However, Kitchee has since shown great signs of improvement and with the recent League Cup triumph, the Blues’ chances of coming home with an away victory should still be cautiously optimistic. Centre-back Kim Taemin believes Kitchee players will be ready to redeem themselves in the away match against New Radiant on Tuesday. “We started this year’s AFC Cup pretty well but then started to drop points. I think this might be due to the injury problems that we ran into,” Kim pointed out. “From what I have seen regarding our goal-difference, losing Fernando (Recio) at the back might still be okay but the loss of Jordi (Jorge Tarres) up front has been quite impactful. Thankfully, both players are back in training these days and their return will be a great boost for the side.” Full-back Tong Kin-man insists Kitchee still targets for a top place finish in Group F and hence the side will go out with all guns blazing on Tuesday against New Radiant. “We have always set our sights on finishing at the top of the group and this target has never wavered,” Tong declared. “Despite only drawing New Radiant at home, we still managed to create quite a lot of chances during that game. Now that we are playing in Maldives, as long as we take our opportunities in front of the opposing goal, I am quite confident that we can come up with a victory.”