EAFF Championship: battling Hong Kong unlucky in 1-0 defeat by China, as Jorn Andersen takes the positives

Hong Kong’s woes continued in the EAFF Championship, but Jorn Andersen’s side can hold their heads high after a battling performance in their 1-0 defeat by China at Toyota Stadium in Nagoya on Wednesday.

Tan Long scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half. Twice Hong Kong’s defence failed to clear the ball on the left side of the area, with Sun Ming-him’s effort deflected by Chen Guokang into the path of Changchun Yatai striker Tan, whose shot from inside the box gave goalkeeper Chan Ka-ho no chance.

It meant a third consecutive defeat for Hong Kong in the 2022 tournament, after losing 6-0 to Japan before a 3-0 defeat by South Korea, but they arguably deserved a draw against the mainlanders.

After making it to the regional tournament for the fourth time, Hong Kong are still yet to win a match, but Andersen considered it an important opportunity before the 2023 Asian Cup, for which the city has qualified for the first time in 54 years.

“This is very important for us ahead of next year’s Asian Cup where we will compete again quality teams like we played here,” said head coach Andersen. “Now we know what the level is and how we have to get up to play against these teams. This is a good experience.

“Of these three games, I was a little bit disappointed with the game today. The first two games we were not so good and the second one was better but I was really thinking we could win today.

“We played a tactical match – we stayed high and worked very hard, but at the end that is football. Sometimes we are lucky, sometimes we are not. We will try again next time.”