Kitchee back in title race after ‘team of champions’ humble Senior Shield winners Eastern
Coach Edgar Cardoso’s team dominate to end Eastern’s unbeaten start and close in on league summit
Edgar Cardoso, the Kitchee head coach, declared that his “team of champions” were back in the Premier League title race after they humbled Eastern 3-0 at Mong Kok Stadium on Sunday.
Eastern were visibly short of stamina and spark barely 72 hours after their draining Senior Shield final victory over Lee Man on Thursday.
In contrast, Kitchee were slick and energetic, and could have scored more than the three first-half goals netted by Sherzod Temirov, Fernando and Aaron Rey.
Kitchee’s championship hopes looked over following a sticky start to the season, but after adding this victory to a 2-1 win at league leaders Tai Po last week, they climbed a place to third, leaving them six points from the summit.
“We can count on Kitchee to fight for the title – what we did last week and again today is from a team of champions,” Cardoso said. “Kitchee are definitely back. We have closed a huge gap … and we can be confident of keeping the same attitude, quality and winning mentality in the next weeks.”