Match Report and Prediction League Update - Week 10 - Kitchee secure first win of 2018 in style with 8 goal destruction of sorry Eastern

Eastern fans wanted revange (sic) but all they got was another bloody nose as Kitchee went for the jugular and inflicted Eastern's worst defeat in recent memory.  Eastern were awful. Rudderless and leaderless. Individual mistakes from Diego Eli, Bai He and Yusuke Igawa led to three of the goals and you had the sense that (now sacked) Szeto Man Chun had no idea how to stop the bleeding.  After disappointing results in the last two games, Kitchee were impressively unrelenting, even at 4-0 up they still smelt blood and you got the sense that they wanted to embarrass their former rivals, finishing up with an 8-1 demolition.  

Rather like that last day of the season decider, Kitchee came out of the blocks fast looking to unsettle Eastern from the off and this tactic once again paid dividends. Within 2 minutes Vadocz robbed Bai He inside his own area and laid the ball off to Lucas who curled the ball into the middle of the net. 1-0 Kitchee. Lucas, making only his second appearance after returning from injury, went on to score a hatrick - adding a superb diving header (5-0) and a smash from close range following a pull back by Sandro (6-0) - on what was a fantastic night for the Brazilian.  With the arrival of Diego Forlan, many thought that Lucas would be loaned out to another team but we are delighted to see him back and scoring again.  Kitchee could have been 2-0 up within 13 minutes as Jared Lum broke through one on one with the Yapp. Lum poked the ball past Yapp and looked to have been clipped on his trailing ankle. Lum went down expecting a penalty but instead the Ref, undeservedly, booked Lum for diving. However, this was just a short moment of respite for Eastern as a fantastic cross from Fernando towards Lucas was unwittingly turned into his own net by Eastern new boy Igawa. 

10 minutes later and Kitchee were at it again. Vadocz, whom with Fernando was arguably MOTM, picked up a loose ball in the middle of the park, played a nice 1-2 with Forlan and slotted the ball into the net, sending the helpless Yapp the wrong way.  Forlan was making his full debut for the Bluewaves and looked impressive, happily chasing up loose balls and closing down the defenders.  He lasted 60 minutes before being substituted and will look to get more game time in with only 2 more games before the ACL group stages start.
3-0 was how it stayed for the rest of the first half. Eastern came out in the second half clearly looking to restore some pride and had some good chances to score early on - with McKee hitting the bar and shooting just wide when one-on-one with Wang ZP. However, just moments after that second McKee miss, Kitchee had scored again.  Another terrible individual error, this time from Diego Eli, sent Lum sprinting through on goal.  The Australian picked up Eli's wayward backpass and burst through finishing superbly well into Yapp's bottom left corner.

Lucas added his 2nd and 3rd goals before Fernando, who enjoyed his best game in recent weeks, added a brace of fine goals himself.  The first a shot from just outside the area, following great work by Lucas on the wing, that flew into the net courtesy of  a deflection. The second, an excellent finish, after Lee Chi Ho and driven his clearance straight at the winger. These goals were separated by a consolation from James McKee on what was a night to forget for the Easterners.

On a night that also saw Li Nga Hoi also make his debut following return from loan, there was a lot for Kitchee fans to be happy about. However, I think most will also be quite sad at what has happened to Eastern. With the capitulation of SCAA, Eastern had developed a good rivalry over the past few years (including between respective chairman) and so its sad to see their only true challengers performing so badly after pushing them all the way last year. 

In terms of the prediction league, no one guessed that 8-1 could ever happen (although, Richard did guess 25-0 so I reckon he probably counts as the closest),but Patrick and Welly but take extra points for predicting that Lucas would score first.  Bill is still top of the league with 23 points with Yuen Wing Yan just behind. 

Next match vs HK Rangers - Sunday 28th January, 2.30pm at Mong Kok stadium