Live | Kitchee v Manchester United - Live blog

Follow all the action live as the Premier League champions take on Kitchee at Hong Kong Stadium

Fans of Manchester United snap photos of the match with Kitchee at Hong Kong Stadium, Causeway Bay. Photo: Felix Wong
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Introduction

Oh yes, Moyes also said he had no news about Rooney and Chelsea.

That'll do it for tonight, thanks for tuning in and see you next time.

David Moyes has been in to talk to the press. Extremely briefly. He played down concerns over the pitch

"I thought our players played very well on a difficult pitch, and made it look like a good pitch - I thought we played well.
"I thought it was a good exciting game for the supporters as well, so no, we didn’t worry too much about the pitch conditions at all.

Moyes says he's learnt a lot on the club's Asian Tour, and heads back to the UK knowing a great deal more about his squad. He singled out youngsters Adnan Januzaj and Jesse Lingard, and new signing Wilfried Zaha, for special praise. 

"In lots of ways I’ve looked at [the squad]. I've known them before because I’ve obviously watched them play over the last few years and longer. 
"I've seen a couple of oung boys  doing well like Januzaj and Lingard who I didn't know as well,  Wilfried Zaha as well who’s just joined, he’s shown what he’s capable of, they’ve come here and contributed to it. Most of the others everybody knows quite well."

Kitchee manager Alex Gomes

"In the circumstances it was a good match for us.

"I told them to play the best they can, to play it on the deck, as it was a game for the people of Hong Kong and I’m happy because we did our best, played the ball around well and scored a couple of good goals.

"Mr Kin has made  a lot of efforts to get this game going and it was a good one to prepare for the AFC Cup because we know we'll face opponents from leagues stronger than the Hong Kong league."

Lam Ka-wai
"For sure it will be one of the most memorable goals I’ve ever scored. Hopefully there’s even better ones to come. The first half was a really tough game, first time experiencing the pressure United can sustain. I was just trying to stay calm before the game. After the first half everything came together for me to get the first goal and it was outstanding."

 

Video: Manchester United play Kitchee on their pre-season tour

FULLTIME Kitchee 2 Manchester United 5. Entertaining enough. Kitchee do one better than A-League All-Stars, so are officially better than the best of Australia. Scored the best two goals of the night too.

Heading down to get some Moyes reaction, will update blog in a bit, as long as I don't forget like the other night

90min His holiness Robin van Persie takes a free-kick, but blasts it straight into wall. Smalling should have made it six, shoots wide unmarked from pen spot 3mins extra time

88min Another effort of sorts for Kitchee as a long punt / shot back into Man U box almost lands on, I think, Xu's head.

86min RVPwatch: HE TOUCHED THE BALL!! Huge cheers as he, er, touches the ball in the corner miles from goal. Pretty laughable really, Hong Kong Man U fans

84min Xu Deshai comes seriously close with diving header after Tarres cross from right. RVPwatch: no touches yet

CW Tsang on for Recio earlier To Hon to for Alkande. But who cares as long as RVP is on

79min GOAL Kitchee 2 Manchester United 5  Fans telling Kitchee keeper to kick it out so RVP can come on. Meanwhile, Lingard bends in a cracker from 20 metres

Substitution Robin van Persie for Zaha - and you'd think Hong Kong had just won the World Cup by the noise. 

77min Not much in way of chances, but it looks like RVP and Ferdinand are getting a run out

73min Belencoso replaced by Tarres. Few minutes ago Lam replaced by Chan Man-fai. Can't say Belencoso has been too impressive, but slightly tougher opposition than he'll get in Hong Kong league, to be fair

72min Rafael on for twin Fabio, Jones on for Carrick. RVP warming up, huge cheers for him

GOAL Kitchee 2 Manchester United 4 BRILLIANT GOAL. Alex Alkande cuts in from the right wing, then moves the ball from his left to his right to take out two Man U defenders before finishing well across Amos with his right. Game on?

66min Man U deal with Kitchee's free-kick comfortably. Big shouts of RVP! RVP! from the crowd. 24mins left, will Moyes risk him on the cow patch? I doubt it.

64min Oh dear. Anderson fires over after being teed up by more good work from Januzaj. Forget what I said about the Brazilian having a good game. Kitchee have free-kick in good area on right wing now after foul by Lingard on Alkande

Just noticed advert proudly proclaiming this is sponsored by Mega Events Fund. Good they could funnel money to Man U shareholders, but refuse to support other events, for example the Cricket Sixes

Tsang Kam-to replaced by Cheung Kin-fung. For Kitchee. Obviously.

60min Sorry, did I say good atmosphere? Mexican wave is going round stadium now, always a sign that people aren't paying attention. Januzaj has just worked another good low strike on target that is saved. He looks very impressive

58min Man U right back at them. Free kick into the wall and just now Januzaj forces a good save, then Lingard fires over. Decent atmosphere. Another goal for Kitchee would be fun ... if unlikely

GOAL Kitchee 1 Manchester United 4 WHAT A STRIKE! Lam Ka-wai turns Carrick inside out and whips a left-footed belter into the top corner. Kitchee may get hammered, but that could be goal of the game

51min Man U should really have created another chance there, breaking at pace from another failed Kitchee attempt to attack. Four or five on two or three, Anderson gives it straight to a Kitchee defender.

Sub Kitchee, Xu Deshai for Christian Annan

GOAL Kitchee 0 Manchester United 4 Unsurprisingly it's Januzaj, heading in from 6 yards after Buttner stands it up for him from left edge of the box. That didn't take long

49min some more nice play from Januzaj, works a one-two with Carrick on the right but cutback cut out for another corner which Kitchee just about deal with

47min Januzaj immediately into the action, has a shot from edge of the area blocked for a corner

Looks like Man U have switched to 4-4-2. Lingard and Januzaj up front, Buttner on left wing

Second half underway. Jesse Lingard, Adnan Januzajand Alexander Buttner on for Man U, Danny Welbeck,  Ashley Young  and Patrice Evra off

HALF TIME Kitchee 0 Manchester United 3 Entertaining enough nonsense, albeit Man U seem to have decided to shift down a gear or three since going three up. Kitchee have tried to play football, but haven't created a chance and for much of the half have been struggling to get near United. Zaha looks slippery and dangerous, and it will be interesting to see him in action in some proper games. Anderson's played well, admittedly under little pressure. Hopefully Kitchee nick an early one in the second half to make something of a game of it

"1 minute of added time" We didn't get any of that nonsense in Asia Trophy

42min Kitchee get into Man U territory again, but once more the final ball isn't good enough. Crowd in South Stand chanting "we want four"

38min Man U get a free-kick in dangerous territory on the right after Zaha is fouled, but it's a bit behind and comes off Carrick for a goal-kick.

Challenge now for Kitchee is to do better than the A-League All-Stars, who Man U beat 5-1. Other results on tour: beaten by a Thai League XI 1-0, beaten by Yokohama 3-2, drew with Osaka 2-2, last minute goal

Pause as Kitchee's Alkande gets treatment. Man U take chance to water up. Alkande should be fine

34min Kitchee get an attack of sorts going at last, but it founders with the final ball. New boy Belencoso not getting much of a sniff

To be fair, stadium is about as close to sold-out as you can get. Interesting still tickets available though. Almost everyone here in a red Man U top

30min Kitchee getting well gubbed now. Keeper saves another effort, then Smalling heads over from corner when he should have had his second. 

Sub for Kitchee,  Chu Siu-kei off Matthew Lam. Chu slight injury before match apparently

So much for it being a sell out

25min GOAL Kitchee 0 Manchester United 3 Kitchee have a free-kick in Man U territory, but it's wasted and Man U break with a long ball down left wing to Young. He switches it to Zaha on right wing, who dinks a little pass through to Fabio on the underlap. He toe-pokes a nice finish hard first time low with his right

22min GOAL Kitchee 0 Manchester United 2 Great header at the back post from Smalling. Man U keep up pressure after corner and Cleverley whips in a superb inswinging cross from the right, Smalling leaps about a metre higher than anyone else to finish

21min Annan beats Smalling on the left and cuts back for Belencoso, but he fires over. Ball was just out anyway. Up the other end, Young shoort from seriously close range, but fires it into the ground and deflected over

19min BIG MISS! Nice play from Man U spreading it from the back through Cleverley to Welbeck on the right wing who picks out Zaha in the box. Nice chest down, beats diving tackle, but scoops his effort over the bar from eight metres -  he can't believe it

17min Zaha next to try his luck, but his effort is wild and high into South Stand. Can Kitchee come back to make a game of it?

16min GOAL Kitchee 0 Manchester United 1 Young blasts a shot from the left, it takes a deflection on to the near post and falls perfectly for Welbeck, who reacts well to volley into the unguarded net

15min First effort from Man U, Anderson carrying the ball 10 metres to edge of box and curling a shot wide

13min Kitchee look to be playing a 4-3-3, becoming more of a 4-5-1 as Man U press them back. Trying to play football despite the class of their opponents. Debut for new striker Belencoso

Wang: Tsang, Recio, Rehman, Rodriguez; Huang, Lam, Chu; Annan, Belencoso, Alkande

11min Zaha looking sharp for Man U, links up well with Anderson and Fabio, but the Brazilian's cutback from inside the box is cut out. Kitchee almost put themselves in trouble again trying to play out of defence before Rehman's no-nonsense hoof up the park

9min Man U starting to exert a bit more pressure now, but Kitchee are holding firm, with Zesh Rehman solid at back. Annan almost put himself in trouble against Fabio on Kitchee's left, but they dealt with danger. Still no clear cut chances

5min Young tries to beat a couple of defenders himself from Man U's left, but Kitchee are solid. Christian Annan showing some nice touches in midfield for Kitchee, who haven't been overawed early on.

3min Man U break from a second Kitchee corner down right with Zaha and Anderson has a shot from 25 metres blocked. 

8.06pm 1min And we're off. Zaha on right Young on left, Man U 4-3-3. Early corner for Kitchee almost leads to a chance for them

8.03pm Some nonsense about group photos with VIPs etc now. At least it should let a few more people get in

 

7.58pm Judging from that pic, those crowds are still a good 10min walk from Stadium - and that's if there were no events on. Looks like another pathetic bit of over-zealous HK bureaucracy. Will kick-off be delayed?

Just had an email from Jeffrey Chan with this photo:

"Idiot crowd control measures being employed by the police tonight.

More than half the crowd stuck outside. Diverted straight into incoming traffic. Forced to squash onto footpath."

 

7.50pm 10 mins to kickoff, stadium still half-empty. looks like large crowds outside trying to get in

7.44pm Roy Allen taking issue with me calling it a fairly strong Man U line up. I think second string is a bit harsh though. Fairly similar to other teams on their Asian tour. Would be nice to see RVP and Giggs at some point. Understandable if Moyes doesn't want to risk them though. Biggest cheers for those two when names read out. 

 

Kitchee are as follows. Not much idea of formation, sorry

Wang Zhenpeng, Fernando Recio Comi, Daniela Cancela Rodriguez, Zesh Rehman, Chu Siu-kei (capt), Alex Alkande, Belencoso, Lam Ka-wai, Annan, Huang Yang, Tsang Kam-to

 

That team is correct, so looks to me like Man U will line up 4-2-3-1, or 4-3-3

Amos 

Fabio          Keane Smalling     Evra (capt)

Carrick Cleverley

Young       Anderson        Zaha

Welbeck

 

7.16pm Stadium starting to fill up. Looks like almost everyone here faithfully has their replica top on, which should please Manchester United plc. Unlike Barclays Asia Trophy, which was a mishmash of fans, we look set for the proverbial 'sea of red' here. 

Inside, scarves and other merch are flying off the shelves for around $180 - $250. 

The pitch doesn't look too bad considering. I mean, it does look very, very bad, don't get me wrong. At least it's dry though. 

Still no sign of the team sheets yet, get them up here soon as I receive one

Hello and welcome to Hong Kong Stadium, we're back for our fifth game in six days involving Premier League clubs. 

Thankfully, after the laughable state of the pitch for the Barclays Asia Trophy it's been dry all day - the pitch might not be a swamp today, but it's going to be dry and bobbly. 

It's about an hour until kick-off, here's some reading about the shambles of a pitch, with the government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department taking most of the blame. Meanwhile, it seems doubtful the Premier League will be rushing back to Hong Kong for future editions of the Asia Trophy.

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