Asian Games 2023: Hong Kong’s best laid plans almost go to waste in entertaining second clash with Uzbekistan

Hong Kong came into their Asian Games rematch against Uzbekistan with a plan - they almost had to tear it up and start again in a 2-1 defeat on Monday.

Head coach Jorn Andersen had wanted to rest some players, protect some others and get in and out without too much damage being done ahead of their round of 16 game against Palestine on Wednesday.

It was the reason he made six changes to the side that lost Friday’s encounter 1-0, leaving out the likes of Sun Ming-him and Ellison Tsang Yi-hang and bringing in Sohgo Ichikawa into the starting line-up, and the motivation for tweaking a team leading at half-time and with a chance of causing an upset in Hangzhou.

A nasty blow Matthew Orr took in a clash of heads with Bekhzod Shamsiev aside, which Andersen said was just a knock, and a mystifying red card for Jahangir Khan, any damage was limited to the L that went go into the record books.

Still, it only took four minutes for Li Ngai-hoi’s header to alter the dynamic of the game.

Going ahead put Hong Kong level on aggregate and opened up the possibility of winning Group C. If Anson Wong Ho-chun had done better when one-on-one with goalkeeper Khamidullo Abdunabiev 15 minutes later, Andersen’s plan, as he said afterwards, would have been turned to dust.