Kitchee stays atop premier league table with away

With back-to-back home games to open the premier league season, Kitchee finally hit the road on Friday night and travelled to the narrow Hong Kong Football Club Ground to face a resilient HKFC side. The Blues dug deep and came up with just enough to breakdown the opponent, grinding out a 2:0 victory through goals from captain Lo Kwan-yee and Alexander Akande, and made it three premier league wins in a row. Kitchee took the fixture very seriously and started the match with much of the same lineup that it deployed for the first two premier league fixtures. The Blues took control right from the get-go and came up with numerous chances. Unfortunately, Marcos Jimenez saw his effort rejected by the crossbar, while Helio Goncalves and Rufino Segovia failed to solve the resilient HKFC defense. Despite HKFC putting up a strong fight, Kitchee continued to pass the ball, hoping to create spaces for its attack. The side was finally rewarded on the 71st minute, when Lo Kwan-yee cut back into the middle of the box and fired home from close-range, breaking the game open and putting the Blues in front. Late in the game, substitute Alexander Akande capitalized on the opponent’s mistake, broke behind the HKFC defense on the left side and calmly slotted the ball home, making it 2:0. Captain Lo Kwan-yee, who opened the score for Kitchee, was candid in his assessment in the post-game media scrum. “Our forwards were all tightly-marked by the opponents. Thus as a player who operated on the flank, I wanted to keep making passes and runs in order to create necessary space to attack,” Lo explained. “It was a tough game because the opponent really jammed the backend. It was not easy to break behind the opponent’s defense with passes and the victory was definitely hard-earned. From my personal standpoint, it is great to get on the scoreboard and find the back of the net so early in the season. This goal will definitely be a great confidence booster for myself.” Striker Rufino Segovia was tightly marked throughout the game but knew this was coming all along. “People thought we would be coming over and putting six goals past HKFC but we knew this was not going to happen,” the Kitchee sharp-shooter admitted. “All premier league sides are similar in quality and every team understands our playing style. I scored quite a few goals last season and now, every team is marking me so much more tightly. However, this will create more space for my teammate so I do not mind this one bit. We just need to keep on focusing on picking up wins. That is the most important thing.”