[AFC Cup] Inept Warriors ripped apart by Dominant Kitchee

Jordi's (18) goal led the Kitchee's revival

It was by not mean an easy task for the most decorated S.League club who are enduring their worst start of the campaign in the recent years (without a single at all fronts prior to this match).

Some patchy plays by the Warriors in the first half had the crowds at the ground hardly convinced they were the likely ones to score (which they did) and witnessed Tatsuro Inui's curler from outside gave them the lead in 23rd minute with Erwan Gunawan followed in later to double the scorelines in the 29th minute.

As such, they took a 2-0 lead before the interval against a much-dominant Kitchee SC from Hong Kong in their AFC Cup Group E encounter at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Just as it thought that the eighth-time S.League champions could have found its way back to their winning ways, tragedy struck right immediately after the game restarted in the second half when the reigning Hong Kong league champions pulled one back in less than a minute into play.

Hassan Sunny's heroics ensured scores remained that way

With a much dominant possession play that well covered every blade of grass to deny the inept Warriors from making any inroad in their heartlands, the visitors eventually wrapped up the game with three more goals in the second half to claim a well-deserved victory to revenge the loss on the same ground five years back.

Sharing his thoughts following the game, Warriors coach V Selvaraj felt the "lost of concentration" played a part in the loss.

"I believed the lost of concentration in the second half (caused the defeat)," said the former national striker in the post match press conference.

Mislav Karoglan (right) found it tough going in this outing

"We did everything to protect the two-goal lead, but I think we defended poorly and with their Spanish players raised the level of their play and as for now I believe that numerically we still have a chance to qualify for the next round that we need to stay focused." he added.

Meanwhile, Kitchee coach Josep Gombau opined that having the control of the game was the key to see his team came back from a two-goal deficit to claim the three points.

"We had the control of the game and controlled the ball," commented the former FC Barcelona staff coach who joined the club in 2009 and led them to numerous honours with his Catalan-inspired style of football.

Coach Josep Gombau brought recent success to Kitchee

"And we were lucky to score in the first minute (of the second half)." said Gombau on the goal scored by Jorge Tarres Paramo (aka Jordi)that triggered the fightback and saw 31-year-old netted his second in the 51st minute that was later followed by Lo Kwan Yee's 62nd minute strike with Cheng Siu Wai capped the night on the 75th minute.

The Spaniard coach revealed his target is to improve their continental performance after made it to the last 16 in 2012.

"Our target is to go to the next round and hope to improve to do better than last year, so it's important to start winning and can't relax in our game." he concluded.