Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Hong Kong: Teenage forward Daniel Lalhlimpuia scored the winner as India’s JSW Bengaluru reached the AFC Cup quarter-finals for the first time after a 3-2 win over 2014 semi-finalists Kitchee on Wednesday.
Spanish striker Rufino Segovia put the Hong Kong Premier League side in front inside the opening 10 minutes but a Sunil Chhetri brace in quick succession on the half-hour mark turned the tie on its head.
Jordi Tarres replied for Kitchee before half-time but 18-year-old Lahlimpuia’s goal on 51 minutes gave Bengaluru the lead once again and proved to be enough to see the I-League champions into the last eight.
“We’d said previously that coming to Hong Kong would be difficult because of the type of team that Kitchee are, but we also said we were confident and would do our homework. Everybody stepped up to the mark and we got the result,” said Bengaluru assistant coach Matthew Holland.
“We’ll reflect on the game, watch it clearly and see the areas that we did and didn’t do well. What we certainly would do is prepare well for the next opponent and hopefully we can put on a performance with the same grit, determination and tactical quality.”
Mongkok Stadium was the scene of Bengaluru’s Round of 16 elimination last year at the hands of Kitchee’s rival South China and they got off to a poor start again as Segovia put the hosts in front on seven minutes as he stooped to head in Lo Kwan Yee’s cross at the back post.
Bengaluru responded to going behind, though, and were level just after the half-hour mark through captain Chhetri.
Eugenson Lungdoh was brought down in the area by Li Ngai Hoi and the Bengaluru skipper stepped up to chip his penalty down the middle with Wang Zhengpeng already committed.
And just two minutes later the same player put the visitors in front as he volleyed home after Rino Anto’s cross fell to him just inside the penalty area.
But just before half-time Kitchee were back on level terms. Christian Annan slipped in Tarres into the area and the Spaniard blasted the ball into the top corner of the net to make the score 2-2.
There was little respite in the second-half as after just six minutes Bengaluru where in front again.
Lalhlimpuia chased down a poor back-pass by Annan and although Zhenpeng came out to block, the loose ball was tucked home into the empty goal by the forward.
Both sides continued to probe forward in search of another goal, with Annan and Segovia both coming close for the home side and Chettri narrowly missing two more chances for his hat-trick before limping off with an apparent hamstring injury in the 78th minute.
His teammates managed to hold onto their slender lead for the remainder of the game, however, to knock their opponents out of the tournament and advance to the next stage of the competition.
“The players were facing fatigue after the end of our Hong Kong domestic season, we didn’t capture our chance when we were leading 1-0 in the first half, we made a lot of mistakes and missed passes which led to our defeat in this game,” said Kitchee coach Alex Chu.
“We made several reckless mistakes during the whole game, we weren’t able to keep possession today which is usually our strength, partly because of the pressure from the opponents but we also made the mistakes ourselves."
Photo: Lagardère Sports