Lunar New Year Cup: Hong Kong select edged on penalties by Fernando Torres’ Sagan Tosu
- The matches finishes 1-1 after 90 minutes before the J.League side win the shoot-out 4-2

A hard-working Hong Kong select XI were beaten on penalties by Japanese side Sagan Tosu in the Lunar New Year Cup on Tuesday and will have to be satisfied with a third-place play-off clash against Auckland City on Thursday.
Many of the 14,502-strong crowd had come out on Lunar New Year’s Day to see World Cup-winner Fernando Torres in action, and they were not disappointed when the Spaniard grabbed the opening goal on 38 minutes after a mix-up in the Hong Kong defence.
A harmless looking cross went all the way through to the veteran and he controlled and turned before crashing the ball past Leung Hing-kit and into the roof of the net.
It was a pity for Hong Kong who had worked hard to limit time and space for the star striker until that point. Hong Kong had arguably had the better of the contest until the goal and would have been disappointed to go in one down at the interval.
After a subdued opening, the hosts began to warm to their task after 20 minutes and looked the more likely to score.
Their best opening came when a dangerous ball whipped into the box was desperately headed over by the Sagan Tosu defence with the impressive Mahama Awal challenging. From the resulting corner, Travis Major had sight of his target and forced a smart save from Takuo Okubo in the Sagan Tosu goal.

Marcos Gondra was a persistent threat to the Japanese with a series of searching through balls, but as the interval approached, the Hong Kong select were dealt the sucker punch which changed the complexion of the game, and almost certainly manager Kevin Bond’s half-time team talk.