Both Beijing and Shandong basically facing must-win matches to qualify for the knockout stages tomorrow.
Guizhou was an absolute disgrace today. Qualifying for and playing in the AFC Champions League is hard work and should be played with every inch of pride and determination. But Guizhou and Gong Lei decided to bring a matchday squad with only 14 (!!) players and no goalkeeper. There were only three subs on the bench today (actually two because one player was injured in training) and they decide to field basically a C-team. According to AFC Champions League regulations, clubs have to play at their best and use their strongest possible team even if the club is already unable to qualify for the next round. Guizhou has admitted that they broke those regulations on purpose to rest players for a league game and they deserve punishment for doing it. EDIT: Gong Lei has been sacked by Guizhou following the loss today. Zhu Jiong, assistant manager under Gong and former manager of Shanghai Shenxin, has now been appointed as the manager.
CSL Round 6 Apr 11 Tianjin Teda 2-5 Guangzhou Evergrande (28,866) Guizhou Renhe 1-2 Beijing Guo'an (16,117) Apr 12 Shanghai SIPG 1-0 Changchun Yatai (13,002) Shandong Luneng 2-0 Hangzhou Greentown (20,166) Apr 13 Shanghai Shenxin 1-0 Harbin Yiteng (10,092) Guangzhu R&F 4-0 Henan Jianye (13,378) Jiangsu Sainty 1-1 Liaoning Whowin (25,323) Shanghai Greenland Shenhua 2-0 Dalian Aerbin (10,806) CSL Round 7 Apr 18 Henan Jianye 1-2 Guizhou Renhe (13,526) Apr 19 Beijing Guo'an 0-3 Shandong Luneng (41,789) Guangzhou Evergrande 2-1 Shanghai Greenland Shenhua (41,500) Apr 20 Liaoning Whowin 0-2 Tianjin Teda (10,101) Dalian Aerbin 1-1 Shanghai SIPG (12,312) Changchun Yatai 2-3 Guangzhou R&F (10,152) Shanghai Shenxin 1-1 Jiangsu Sainty (10,012) Hangzhou Greentown 2-1 Harbin Yiteng (12,893) Update to Round 7, Total attendance 1,174,329 Average attendance 20,970
Beijing is out and Shandong is currently out aswell trailing 1-2 after two quick Cerezo goals in the second half. As Pohang is confirmed group winner, the team that advance will face Guangzhou in the next round, which atm is Cerezo
Beijing played well but fell to FC Seoul at away 2-1. A narrow loss that sees them out of the competition. Shandong lost 2-1 at home after leading 1-0 through a Vagner Love penalty and are also out. Only Chinese team left standing is Guangzhou Evergrande who will play Cerezo Osaka in the round of 16.
wow dong xuesheng scored again in today's 4-0 victory over liaoning. this player, in the past, didn't have much of a name. he was one of the chinese players that scored a rare hat-trick in CSL. i am impressed with what evergrande is doing to develop him.
http://wildeastfootball.net/2014/04/csl-week-8-wrap-top-4-all-victorious-in-tense-weekend/ evergrande destroy shanghai donya, beijing won and shandong luneng lost to changchun yatai
Guangzhou Evergrande plays against Cerezo Osaka tomorrow morning at 6:00 ET/3:00 PT. It's an away match for the first leg.
Guangzhou trashed Cerezo Osaka 5-1. Two goals from Elkeson and two goals from Muriqui. Gao Lin also scoring one. Diamanti with a couple assists as well.
Despite the 5-1 scoreline, there's still something missing offensively for Guangzhou. They still haven't found a proper solution for Dario Conca imo. Defensively however they look great, they kept Cerezo at bay the whole game.
He didn't do much the first half, I know he made 2 assists but still, he wasn't that involved in the play and when he had the ball it didn't lead to much. One of the assists were from a freekick and we all know he's a set piece specialist so he's always going to be dangerous from there. Second half however he was excellent as you said and pretty much everything came through him. I feel like he's a bit wasted on the wing on the 4-3-3 formation. He has a fantastic left foot but he's not as mobile as you'd want from a winger. I feel that may be the missing point, i believe he's way better if utilised as a CAM in 4-2-3-1 where Conca used to play.
True. He's been good so far this season, but not great. Still hasn't really replicated what Conca did during his time at Evergrande. Lippi needs to play him at attacking mid more.
No one can replace the brand of soccer Conca plays. Diamanti is going to be at best Diamanti. Zheng Zhi has to step up and Gao Lin has to step up, then we we may have a team that is close to being as good as Conca's team, otherwise, we'll need a little bit of luck this year to go all the way. Highlights of this 5-1 game, http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2014-05-08/12107155169.shtml
Guangzhou Evergrande lost to Guangzhou R&F 1-0 on Friday, allowing Beijing Guoan to get level on points with them was they won 1-0 against Liaoning Whowin. Guangzhou R&F is in third place and behind the top two by 5 points. Also, Shandong Luneng lost their fourth league game of the season and it seems like their manager Cuca might be shown out of the door any minute now.
Partially. Vagner Love is their top goalscorer by a lot of goals, but even with Love they were still poor. Now that Love is out wih an injury, they can't finish at all even though they have 15-20 shots each game.