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Hong Kong team stuns Juventus in exhibition
Hong Kong's third-ranked club Kitchee stunned Italian champion Juventus with a 5-3 win on penalties in an exhibition match.
Alessandro Birindelli missed his penalty shot to concede the match after Juventus squandered a 2-0 lead to finish regulation time tied 2-2. Kitchee's Fan Zhiyi, a former Crystal Palace and Dundee defender on loan from Shanghai Zobon for the match, sealed the win with his side's fifth consecutive penalty kick after Keith Jerome Gumbs scored two regulation time goals, including the equalizer minutes from fulltime. Juventus' Alessio Tacchinardi and Alessandro Parisi made the Italian side's first two kicks but Birindelli's attempt sailed over the crossbar, setting the stage for a major upset. Kitchee players rushed into a huddle in celebration after Fan's successful kick before a crowd of 12,802 at Hong Kong Stadium. Juventus dominated in the first half and opened the scoring in the 17th minute when forward Alessandro Del Piero collected a long pass inside the penalty box and found the top of the net. Fed by Del Piero near the top left corner of the penalty box, Pevel Nedved widened the lead when he attempted an apparent volley in the 44th minute that bounced off the ground and over Kitchee goalkeeper Xiao Guoji. The tempo of the match was initially slow -- likely due to muddy conditions after a heavy downpour just hours before kickoff -- but it picked up. Kitchee scored three minutes into the second half on a Gumbs header just in front of the goal, which he celebrated by doing a flip. As the match neared its end, the Italian team looked set to hold its lead, but Gumbs shocked Juventus substitute goalkeeper Landry Bonnefoi with a lob that landed in the top right corner of the goal in the 87th minute. Juventus coach Fabio Capello denied that his team let down their guard and complained that Xiao should have been sent off the field for his foul in the first half, which resulted in a yellow card. Nedved said Juventus players aren't used to Hong Kong's humidity. A delighted Gumbs, a native of the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts, declared, "This is the greatest game of my career." Kitchee, which finished third in Hong Kong's top league this past season, beefed up its lineup with two loans, including Fan, the former China team captain. Many Hong Kongers are fervent soccer fans, but this small territory of nearly 6.9 million has yet to produce a world-class player. Juventus, currently on an Asian tour, heads to Japan Sunday to take on Nabisco Cup winners FC Tokyo.
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