Fifa World Cup 2026: Hong Kong cruise to victory over Bhutan in first leg of qualifying play-off

Hong Kong’s young guns took centre stage to fire the city’s national team towards the next round of 2026 Fifa World Cup qualification, as Jorn Andersen’s side thumped Bhutan 4-0 in their play-off first leg on Thursday night.

The 19-year-old Michael Udebuluzor netted a pair of headers inside the opening 16 minutes, and Shinichi Chan, the 21-year-old from Kitchee, struck his first international goal shortly before the half-hour.

There was an element of farce about the own goal from Tenzin Norbu after 35 minutes that put Andersen’s team four goals to the good – and essentially confirmed Bhutan’s goose was cooked, before the two-leg tie was even one-quarter finished.

Next Tuesday’s return in Thimphu should be an exercise in box-ticking – or, perhaps, an opportunity to further swell the feelgood factor around Hong Kong football after their fourth place at the Asian Games.

Everton Camargo (left) takes on the Bhutan defence in a convincing win at Hong Kong Stadium. Photo: Elson Li

It should be noted that Bhutan were feeble opposition, and in a one-sided first half were not much better than the wretched Brunei team annihilated 10-0 in the same Hong Kong Stadium last month.

But Hong Kong made sure they did as head coach Andersen promised earlier in the week and delivered a performance that gave the 10,259 supporters bang for their buck – a HK$200 ticket price that had caused social media rumbles.

The Bhutan players received a ticking-off from referee Razlan Jofri bin Ali after a prolonged pre-match huddle, and it set the tone for a night when the visitors were second to everything.

Hong Kong were simply too fast and aggressive and, in Udebuluzor, possessed a centre-forward who scared the living daylights out of his opponents.

Udebuluzor was hard on himself after failing to score on his debut last month against Brunei, claiming he could not call himself “a proper striker” without hitting the net.

He looked proper here. He was bafflingly unmarked when heading home Wong Wai’s 10th-minute corner from six yards, then leapt to power past Hari Gurung following a beautiful Wong delivery six minutes later.

Everton Camargo twice had shots pushed onto a post before Udebuluzor’s opener. When Gurung shovelled out a swerving attempt from the forward after 21 minutes, Camargo dropped deep to feed Chan – on the move, unlike a motionless defence – to slot beyond the Bhutan stopper.

Camargo controlled a cutback from Fernando soon after but his low drive was blocked by Norbu, who proceeded to get in an awful tangle.

On the ground and losing his bearings, Norbu panicked and somehow hooked the ball into his own net, his embarrassment compounded by the howls of laughter that accompanied a big-screen replay.

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Hong Kong’s more grizzled campaigners did their bit. Yapp Hung-fai, the 33-year-old goalkeeper, flew to his left to deny Tsenda Dojri when Bhutan briefly flickered after half-time. Lobzan Chogyal rattled the bar from distance, too.

Yapp was otherwise redundant, while Gurung continued to earn his corn, as home fans chanted, “we want five”.

Matthew Orr hit a post and Bhutan blocked on the line from Ju Yingzhi to limit the damage to four.

If there were negatives for Andersen, it was that minor injuries forced the early withdrawals of Camargo and Udebuluzor, and the second-half performance was shorn of the urgency of a dominant opening 45 minutes.

However, fresh from the strong Asian Games campaign by the city’s under-23s, Andersen’s team all but assured safe passage to the World Cup’s Asian qualifying group stage, and the ovation supporters gave their Norwegian coach indicated they thought it was HK$200 well spent.

 

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