Kitchee’s AFC Champions League ambitions killed by loss to 10-man Jeonbuk

Kitchee were put out of their Champions League misery after slumping to a 2-1 defeat against 10-man Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, in front of a paltry 2,023 crowd at Hong Kong Stadium on Wednesday night.

The South Koreans had lost both previous away matches, but were too smart for Kitchee, even after defender Jeong Tae-wook was sent off in first-half stoppage time.

“There were two different sides to our play,” Kim Dong-jin, Kitchee’s interim head coach, said. “The goals we conceded were because of our mistakes, but in the second half we attacked and created chances.”

A draw at Group F leaders Bangkok United this month seemed to indicate that after three straight defeats Kitchee were belatedly getting to grips with the continental competition.

But that belief was exposed as a fraud during a first-half when the Hong Kong champions lapsed into the bad defensive habits of early season.

Kim’s team were carved open within two minutes. Shinichi Chan was left for dead by winger Lee Dong-jun, and the cross found Paik Seung-ho completely unmarked in front of goal.

Goalkeeper Wang Zhenpeng, in for the injured Paulo Cesar and playing only his seventh Champions League group match in 18 years with Kitchee, kept out the initial effort, but Paik calmly steered the rebound back for Bak Jae-yong, who set Moon Seon-min up with the easiest of finishes.

Jeonbuk went for the kill early. Mikael Severo scrambled a header from Park Jin-seob off the line, and after 15 minutes Paik put the ball on a plate for Song Min-kyu, who inexplicably hesitated and lost his chance.

Those opportunities were sandwiched by bookings for Chan and fellow full-back Law Tsz-chun for hauling back their respective wingers. Both cards were illustrative of a ragged, leggy Kitchee struggling to keep pace with their speedy, disciplined opponents.

Paik hit the base of a post from distance after 28 minutes, and Jeonbuk had their second 10 minutes later. Andrew Russell made a hash of controlling a straightforward pass from Charlie Scott, and Song was on the defender in a flash, stealing the ball and haring away to give Wang no chance.

Jeonbuk were cruising, only for Jeong to let Kitchee back into the game after clumsily dragging down Ruslan Mingazov, as the pair pursued a long ball. Jeong took an age to leave the field, perhaps hoping for merciful intervention from the VAR.

It was never coming, whatever head coach Dan Petrescu had to say when he confronted referee Akhrol Riskullaev at half-time.

It took nearly an hour for Kitchee to finally manage a shot on target, but goalkeeper Kim Jeong-hoon was equal to Severo’s swerving 58th-minute drive. And from then, the previously unemployed goalkeeper quickly became the busiest man on the field.

He saved down to his left after Hong Jeong-ho deflected a cross towards his own goal, then repelled Cleiton Velasques’ daisycutter, before brilliantly denying Igor Sartori from six yards on the rebound.

There was a terrific one-handed stop to frustrate Mingazov, too, by which time Jakob Jantscher had bolted onto Velasques’ chested knockdown to score his fourth goal in as many Champions League games.

Kim Dong-jin made a rash of attacking substitutes, while opposite number Petrescu stomped around his technical area, and was eventually booked for persistently haranguing the officials.

Substitute Lee Jun-ho struck the woodwork on a rare breakaway, before Jeonbuk killed the game and, despite Scott flashing a screamer narrowly wide at the death, Kitchee’s Champions League ambitions.

“We pushed Jeonbuk until the end and it was a great experience for us,” Kim said.