East Asian Football Championship: Hong Kong have nothing to fear from China, Chan says
Philip Chan accepts Chinese boast superior ‘ranking and ability’, but fit-again midfielder backs city team’s ‘heart and desire’ to triumph
Philip Chan Siu-kwan fanned the flames ahead of Hong Kong’s clash with China on Tuesday, saying the city had nothing to fear from opponents who were hardly “Brazil or Argentina”.
The midfielder, who returned from a three-month injury lay-off as a late substitute in Friday’s 2-0 defeat by South Korea in the East Asian Football Championship, was in the Hong Kong team that beat China 2-1 in a friendly 18 months ago.
While China tumbled out of World Cup qualifying contention last month, they are ranked 94th in the world, 53 places higher than Hong Kong.
The teams are fighting to avoid finishing last in the tournament, after both were beaten by Japan and the hosts in their opening two games in Seoul.
“There is so much rivalry,” Chan said. “China’s football development is at a more advanced level than ours.
“They’re very competitive, definitely higher than us in terms of ranking and ability. But we have the heart and desire … we’ve done great things over the past year or two, we’ve beaten them before, so why not [do it again]? With the standard of players we have, anything is possible.”