Towering Eastern centre-back Aleksandar Mitrovic has promised a “war on the pitch” when his team clash with Tai Po in the Hong Kong FA Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
The tie at Mong Kok Stadium represents a renewal of hostilities, after the sides drew a ferocious top-of-the-table league encounter 3-3 last Sunday. Eastern need leaders Tai Po to slip up in at least one of their remaining four matches for any chance of a first title since 2016.
Their Cup destiny is in their own hands, however, and Mitrovic backed his team to prevail, provided they eradicate the types of individual errors that gifted Tai Po an early 2-0 advantage last week.
“We know how to play against Tai Po – if it wasn’t for some stupid mistakes [in the league game], we’d have won,” the 6ft 4in (1.93-metre) Mitrovic said.
“It’s going to be a war on the pitch, and I hope we knock them out.”
Mitrovic answered an emergency call from Eastern in January, after head coach Roberto Losada lost two defensive pillars in rapid succession. A knee injury ended Dani Almazan’s season, before Tamirlan Kozubaev transferred to Persita in Indonesia.
