Kitchee suffered 0:6 bombshell against Jeonbuk Mot

Making its long-awaited home debut in the AFC Champions League group stage, Kitchee was stunned by fellow Group E side Jeonbuk Motors 0:6 on Tuesday evening, dropping its second group match in the AFC Champions League 2018. Under the watchful eyes of more than thirteen thousand spectators, Kitchee fell behind barely six minutes into the game. Lo Kwan-yee was judged to have brought down a Jeonbuk Motors player inside the box and the referee quickly awarded the visitors with a penalty. Adriano assumed the spot-kick duty, sent Kitchee keeper Wang Zhenpeng to the wrong way and fired his side in front. Kitchee nearly answered back immediately. Unfortunately, Diego Forlan motored inside the opposing box but smashed his shot across the Jeonbuk Motors goal. Around the fifteen-minute mark, Kitchee keeper Wang Zhenpeng turned away, not one but two, great shots from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors players, only to witness Adriano slotting home the rebound from doorstep. Midway in the first half, Kim Jin Su drilled a superb swirling strike home and added to Kitchee’s woes. Shortly afterwards, Tiago Alves was on the mark as well and finished off a great diving header. Late in the first half, Adriano converted another penalty shot to make it a five-goal lead for Jeonbuk Motors heading into the break. After the interval, the game slowed down substantially and both sides only exchanged scoring chances in the latter stage. Deep in stoppage time, Lee Dong Gook fired home from inside the box to complete Jeonbuk Motors’ 0:6 away victory. Despite suffering such a lop-sided defeat at home, Kitchee head coach Alex Chu still credits his troops for their battling attitude. “The players battled hard, remained focused throughout the game and never gave up,” the veteran head coach shared after the game. “Unfortunately, we fell behind really early in the game through a penalty and that really put us behind the eight ball against a very strong Jeonbuk Motors side. I actually thought we were bold, tried to play our typical Kitchee style and actually generated quite some scoring chances, especially early in the game. However, we just conceded the opening goal way too early.” Star forward Diego Forlan could not contain his disappointment after the game and insists the team must step up from a mental point of view. “Maybe we are not the strongest side out there, but we do have some great players,” Forlan observed. “But we must play and we must compete. We have no reason to be afraid of the opponent at all. We can have the whole team defending but if we do not defend as a unit, it does not matter and we are going to lose.”