Kitchee heads North to face R&F in thrilling battl

Fresh off a convincing away victory against Sun Bus Yuen Long, Kitchee will continue to play away from home this weekend, making a long trek to Guangzhou to face premier league rival R&F. Match venue for the exciting clash will be Yanzigang Stadium and kick-off time will be 2:30pm. After completing roughly one-third of the premier league season, Kitchee currently tops the chart with five wins, one draw and sixteen points through its first six league games. The Blues has been firing on all cylinder recently, putting together a six-game winning streak in all domestic competitions, while racking up a jaw-dropping twenty goals during that span. However, standing on its way this weekend will be an equally in-form R&F side. The mainland club has won three games on the trot, with young hot-shot Li Rui scoring four times in four premier league games, making him the player to watch in R&F colors. Paulo Carreiro, who is once again healthy, marked his return to the Kitchee lineup last weekend against Sun Bus Yuen Long with a half-hour substitute appearance. The likable attacker admits travelling all the way to Guangzhou to face R&F will make winning all the more difficult. “R&F has done fairly well at home this season. Adding to the fact that we will need to travel all the way to Guangzhou for the game, therefore I am quite sure that we will need to pay a hefty price in order to come out on top,” said Carreiro. “Having said that, Guangzhou is a big city so I expect the match venue and the hotel that we are staying at to be in decent shape, minimizing the effects of playing away from home.” Kitchee custodian Wang Zhenpeng acknowledges that R&F has capable players within its squad and will likely provide a stiff challenge to Kitchee. “R&F made some hefty investments in the summer and largely bolstered the squad with some big-name signings. Their new players are also starting to adapt to the pace of the premier league and hence their results have picked up as a result,” Wang assessed. “R&F has a lot of speed up-front and with marksmen like Giovane Da Silva leading the line, our defense must be switched on at all times in order to keep them under wraps.”