Rate it!

4 votes

Hull City beat home side Beijing Guoan 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the semi-finals of the Asia Trophy.

The Tigers will face Tottenham Hotspur in the final on Friday after Spurs beat West Ham 1-0 in their all-London clash in Beijing.

Midfielder Giovanni gave Phil Brown's side a ninth-minute lead with a long-range strike.

Cameroonian defender William Modibo levelled early in the second half after the Premier League side failed to clear a corner.

After the 90 minutes ended 1-1, the clash went straight to penalties which saw Hull triumph on sudden death after Zhou Yunhai blasted the 12th spot-kick over the bar.

In an entertaining game, Chinese league leaders Beijing had more of the possession and chances, understandably as they are midway through their domestic season.

Hull, for their part, started well but tired as the match went on.

Australian forward Ryan Griffiths impressed alonsgide brother Joel and the former went close on five minutes but saw his shot blocked for a corner.

The visitors took the lead after Hao Yang gave the ball to Giovanni, who ran towards goal and unleashed an unstoppable drive into the top left corner.

The mercurial Brazilian playmaker went close four minutes later but dragged a shot into the side netting, while Peter Halmosi and Michael Turner also went close but were denied by William and keeper Zhi Yang respectively.

Hull's legs seemed to fade as early as the half-hour mark, though, and the hosts took control of the match.

Xiangchuang Yan played a one-two with Darko Matic, the Croatian defender's backheel finding the Chinese winger who shot over.

Stand-out Beijing winger Emil Martinez forced the shaky Matt Duke to push a long-range free-kick on to the post and Hull were fortunate to be ahead at half-time.

Beijing started the second half with intent, winning a corner that was taken short and caused such havoc that Duke was caught napping and William was able to turn Anthony Gardner and put the ball in the back of the net on 47 minutes.

Sui Dongliang forced a smart stop from Duke three minutes later and, apart from Giovanni's 55th-minute drive that Zhi met with an excellent save, Hull offered almost nothing for the remainder of the game.

Beijing had a shout for a penalty correctly waved away when Turner slid in on Honduran Martinez but the referee incorrectly awarded a goal-kick despite the Liverpool, Manchester City and Fulham target clearly getting the ball.

Substitute Hui Guo almost won it in normal time with a far-post effort on 80 minutes that hit the post after good work from Martinez on the right, while with two minutes remaining he curled a wicked free-kick from the left that Duke tipped over.

With no extra-time in this tournament, the lottery of penalties was used to decide who would face Spurs in the final.

The first six spot-kicks were scored with aplomb. Jamie Devitt, Andy Dawson and Daniel Cousin were on target for Hull, with Wei Tao, Ting Zhou and Bowen Huang netting for Beijing.

The next two penalties were both missed, with Hull's Dean Marney seeing his effort parried by Zhi and Sui hitting his over.

Cool efforts by Bryan Hughes, Hui and Caleb Folan took it to sudden death and Zhou cracked under the pressure, smashing the ball a yard over the bar and handing Hull a barely-deserved win.

Reda Maher / Eurosport