Shanghai Reunited continued their assault on three cups with a quarter final against the first division’s Vikings. The Danish team were much changed though with a distinctly more Chinese flavour to their first 11. When we finally took to the pitch the late kick off felt even later after 3United’s epic win.

It didn’t take long for us to get ahead as Steve went on a trademark dribble after a pass from Alex to make it 1-0 after five minutes. This fast start continued when Alex set Steve up for a second after 9 minutes. The game settled into a slowish rhythm with us generally dominating and the Vikings struggling to fit their newly assembled team together but we weren’t rewarded in goals until just before the break when …. guess ….. what ….. happened. Alex to Steve. 3-0. A first half hat-trick. It seemed like we were cruising but the Vikings hit back almost immediately to remind us not to get too comfortable.

The second half started in the same vein with us dominating and creating chances and the Vikings causing little concern. We went 4-1 up just before the hour mark when Lucas, Xiao Liu and Rob combined for the latter to score. Ten minutes later it was 5-1 when Rob headed in his second of the game from a Karsten corner. By this point the Viking’s spirit was fading and our attack was carving out chance after chance. We added two more goals from Xiao Liu and our new signing Sebastian Andersson, who scored against his old club.

And that was how it ended, 7-1 to Reunited and the prospect of a possible semi-final against our second team. The big games will come flying thick and fast from now on!