Zou Zheng is injured. Here is key man to Scolari's defense. Guangzhou is defending well up to this point, credit to Scolari. Two years ago Guangzhou tried to play attacking soccer against Bayern Munich. Didn't work.
Got it back on. Lucky me. But we are now down 0-1. Damn it. On the other hand, Guangzhou has to attack now. More fun to watch.
Wasn't a bad half, unlucky to be down 1-0 from a bit of a fluffed save by Li Shuai. Zou Zeng's injury looked nasty though. Even had a few good chances in the other half, this is already an improvement from the Bayern game!
Apparently Suarez scored on the 39th minute. Zou Zeng's injury created a lapse of attention, I think, which was apparently enough for Barcelona to finally breach Guangzhou's defense. Scolari decided to defend and Guangzhou did that well, playing mostly on its half with good spacing among the players and occasional counter attacks that looked potentially threatening. All in all, not a bad half. Don't know if it was because posting on this site took up too much bandwidth. But just to be on the safe side, I'll refrain from posting till the end of the game. The second half is going to be more exciting, now that Guangzhou has to venture out to equalize.
That 2nd goal killed GZ, they're completely out of the game now. Elkeson needs to come off, he's giving up on balls passed to him and losing it to the defender behind him, not even pressing on defense - leaving it for Goulart though he's closer.
After Gao Lin came on in the 65th minute, Guangzhou attacked better. My set top box stopped working right after the penalty which made it 3:0. That's the final score too. Not a surprise. The whole China, the squad and the fan base, was way too celebratory before the game. As if too happy just being in a game against Barca than seriously thinking about winning it. Scolari is a smart coach to play defense and Guangzhou did well defending most of the first half. The Zou Zeng injury definitely played a role in Guangzhou's conceding the first goal in the 39th minute. From then on it became easy for Barcelona. The second goal early in the second half put it beyond Guangzhou's reach. Guangzhou will play Yokohama for third place. This game Guangzhou will take seriously, I hope.
Game recap with goal gifs, http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/afccl/2015-12-17/doc-ifxmttme5734218.shtml
But he isn't the best goalkeeper in our team, not by a long shot. You can see Suarez's first goal came from Li Shuai's mistake in parrying the ball straight into his path. Not saying Li is bad, but it would be better if Zeng was playing.
First half was very respectable, even the goal was more or less a keeper mistake. Even got a few attacks going after that goal. Second half they came out a bit flat, and when that second goal went in it really killed their will to play. Elkeson was awful in the 20 minute spell prior to coming off - he wasn't winning 50/50 balls by a long shot, and even passes on the ground to him he was losing to defenders coming from behind him. Evergrande started sitting too deep after that 2nd goal and Barca basically passed them to death like they always do. Despite the 3-0 scoreline, I think the back line did quite well. First goal was a bit of a let down, second goal was just world class, and the penalty was just... lol. I think the team did well until they either gave up or were told to sit back... didn't give Barca too much space in midfield until that. Respectable - more so than the game against Bayern 2 years ago I think.
I only watched the first half of the Sanfrecce Hiroshima game (too late in the night), but despite the early goal (even that was flukey), GZ were dominated by their opponents. Seems like the second half was even worse. I'd use the tired argument but then again the Japanese side had played 6 games in 18 days. I had expected the players to be a bit more fired up to beat a fellow AFC team, but perhaps they got complacent after that early goal and never really bounced back. Not something I'd expect from GZ, but trying to make up excuses to feel better. Good gesture for Zou Zheng though after that goal, hope he recovers with no issues.