Stalemate leaves upstarts Citizen in the box seat

First Division newcomers Citizen held Buler Rangers to a 1-1 draw in the Sunray Cave League Cup at Mongkok Stadium last night to make themselves near certainties to qualify for the semi-finals.

Citizen lead Group B with seven points from three matches after recovering from Eder Ferreira's 70th-minute opener, pulling level through Dalian youngster Ma Shuai with six minutes left to play.

The draw also suits Rangers who have four points from two matches. Sunray Cave, beaten by South China in their first match, moved above the Caroliners in the mini-league with a predictable 3-0 win over struggling Xiangxue.

'It wasn't an exciting game. It wasn't an amusing game, but tactically both teams had planned a lot and didn't want to take too many risks,' said Citizen coach Simon Chan Kung-hing, summing up an encounter that showed far more maturity than it provided edge-of-the-seat enjoyment.

'Rangers are a strong team, a much stronger team in every position other than goalkeeper,' he added, perhaps guilty of underestimating his own side's talents.

'We were looking for one point. It was okay - one of our best defensive performances this season, even though we made one or two mistake,' he said.

That cautious approach allowed Rangers to dictate large portions of the game, and one of the mistakes mentioned allowed strikers Roger Batoum and Eder to combine for the Brazilian to calmly sweep Rangers into the lead.