Kitchee cruised past BC Rangers in Senior Shield Q

Defending Senior Shield champion Kitchee got off to a fantastic start in this year’s competition by making light work of BC Rangers in the quarter-final and crushing its opponent 5:0 on Saturday afternoon. The Blues will now face Sun Bus Yuen Long in the semi-final, fighting for a berth in the prestigious final. Kitchee was well in control of the game against BC Rangers and the Blues did not disappoint by quickly establishing the lead on the 16th minute, when Alessandro Leonardo connected with a Fernando Pedreira cross and headed the ball home. Later in the first-half, Lam Ka-wai and Fernando Pedreira both scored from inside the BC Rangers box, further expanding Kitchee’s lead. Right before half-time, Lucas Da Silva found himself with a loose ball inside the opposing box and coolly directed the ball home, putting Kitchee in front 4:0 heading into interval. Kitchee made a few substitutions to start the second-half, hoping to continue the onslaught. The Blues did manage to create several wonderful scoring chances but somehow failed to capitalize on any one of them. Late in the game, striker Alexander Akande showed his opportunistic instinct by scoring from a goal-mouth scramble, making it 5:0 and sealing Kitchee’s victory over BC Rangers. Stand-in skipper Lam Ka-wai, who capped off a rewarding day on the pitch by netting a goal, hopes to continue to impress in order to fight for additional playing time. “Of course, it is always satisfying to score when you play,” Lam expressed with a smile. “I have not played much this season and I do need to fight for more playing time in order to sustain my own form. I still believe I can contribute to the team and hopefully, when the AFC Champions League kicks-off later this season, I will be able to earn more playing time.” Midfielder Krisztian Vadcoz is pleased to see Kitchee executing the team’s game-plan and advancing through a huge score line. “As always, our game-plan is to open the score early and hopefully, score a few more goals in order to pull away on the scoreboard,” explained the Hungarian veteran. “We managed to do just that today and while the scoring slowed down somewhat in the second-half, we worked hard and found the back of the net again late in the game, which proves that we are a strong team and that should be a huge confidence booster as we continue to try to defend the Senior Shield.”