Hong Kong champions Lee Man to cash in after beating Kitchee and going unbeaten in Premier League campaign
- Kitchee finish fourth after 3-2 defeat, Tai Po claim runners-up spot and Eastern complete top three
- Henri Anier joins Noah Baffoe on 17 goals at top of league scoring charts for season
Lee Man staved off a second-half Kitchee fightback to beat the dethroned champions 3-2, and complete an undefeated league season for the new kings of Hong Kong football.
The Post has been told Lee Man’s players were offered a bonus in the region of HK$16,000 each to beat their title rivals.
Head coach Tsang Chiu-tat’s team secured their bounty courtesy of a rush of goals in the 13 minutes before half-time, while defeat heaped more misery on Kitchee, who fell to fourth in the final league table, after victories elsewhere for Tai Po and Eastern.
Henri Anier struck twice to add to his double in last week’s title-clinching victory over Sham Shui Po. The Estonian’s goals, after 32 and 45 minutes, came either side of a 40th-minute strike from Ryoya Tachibana.
Anier’s goals took him to 17 for the season and in a tie for leading scorer with Eastern’s Noah Baffoe, but an apparent victory lap gave way to a fraught closing period, after Mikael Severo scored twice for Kitchee in three minutes midway though the second half.
The champions survived more than 10 minutes of time added on to complete a league double over Kitchee, and finish the 20-match Premier League campaign with 17 wins and three draws. They are the first team to navigate a Hong Kong league season unbeaten since Kitchee in 2017-18.
Tsui Wang-kit wore the armband on what could be his final appearance for Lee Man with the right back expected join the Hong Kong players flocking to join clubs in mainland China, following winter moves for Oliver Gerbig and Sun Ming-him.
Kitchee attacker Severo is another, apparently, set to leave Hong Kong for the Chinese league.
Elsewhere, Tai Po won 4-2 at HKU23 to claim the runner’s up spot, amid speculation the young Hong Kong team will not feature in next season’s Premier League.
Eastern scored twice in the closing minutes to overturn a 1-0 deficit against North District, and leapfrog Kitchee into third.
Raphael Merkies scored the only goal, as Southern won 1-0 to condemn RCFC to bottom spot.
