The Chinese Super League champions group ended the fourth round on Wednesday night. With Shanghai Harbour and Guangzhou drawing 0-0, Shandong Taishan, who once again staged a stoppage time strike and a 2-1 reversal of Changchun Yatai, has extended their points lead to 10 points.
Despite the return of Brazilian foreign aid Paulinho from the ban, the problem of the team's weak forward scoring ability has not been well solved in this game, which is the most important reason why the team cannot defeat the all-China Guangzhou team and fail to score three points.
Harbor coach Lecco re-featured 20-year-old Liu Zhurun as the starting striker in this game, without using li Shenglong, the main center when he lost to Shandong Taishan in the previous round.
Liu Zhurun actively inserted in front of the field, defended with full strength, and there was another time in the second half to receive Oscar's corner kick before the flick of the head is very threatening. But he was largely unable to gain the upper hand against two guangzhou centre-backs, naturalized international Jiang Guangtai and tall Wu Shaocong. Because of this, although Oscar, Mooi and Paulinho were able to control the ball in midfield, Harbor never really created good scoring opportunities in front of the opponent's goal.
In order to solve the problem of the front, Lecco also made a lot of attempts in the second half. Hu Jinghang, who replaced Liu Zhurun, did a good job of confrontation, creating two threatening attacks; left wing-back Lu Wenjun was later put on the front line, and in the last minute he also sent a legitimate center Li Shenglong, but these changes failed to lead to a winning goal.
In response to the full-wingback offensive tactics that the Harbor team is good at, the Guangzhou team also has a special arrangement. Their forward line players are always able to support the wing in defence, limiting the play and offensive organization of the Harbor side players.
In the case of consecutive battles, the status of the Harbor players has also dropped significantly, including the core Oscar. Especially in the second half, there were too many mistakes in the passing of the Harbor midfielders, which seriously affected the continuity of the attack.
The inability to solve the offensive problem, coupled with the fatigue problem caused by continuous combat, makes the harbor team can only watch Shandong Taishan about to lift the championship trophy of this season's Chinese Super League.
Shandong Taishan, who has 10 points more points than both The Harbor and Guangzhou, will lift this year's Chinese Super League championship trophy three rounds in advance as long as it defeats Hebei in the fifth round of this Sunday.
After the game, Harbor coach Lecco also expressed his disappointment, mentioning the problem of the team's poor finishing ability, "Tell me about my two feelings. I'm a little disappointed about the result, I feel we deserve more than just a draw. In the game, we try to play the pass-and-control football, try to take risks, to score goals. However, I am very happy to see how the players performed on the pitch today, they just had a difficult game three days ago and today the team is back on track and played the right football, the technical and tactical and mental outlook we want to see.
"Of course, there is something missing in the team that kills the game in front of goal, and that's what happens in football. Hopefully, through the competition, we will be able to learn something to help improve. ”
As for Shandong Taishan's imminent ascent, Lecco said he has great respect for the team, "They played a very perfect season, the preparation is very good, the foreign aid is very well organized, so they have been winning." But on the other hand, what they have achieved has little to do with our team. As the head coach of The Harbour, I'm single-mindedly committed to making my team better. After a year of hard work, we have improved in many aspects, and there are many positive things. We only focus on ourselves, focusing on the opponents at the moment, including the next opponent Shenzhen. ”
The more pragmatic goal of the Harbor team now is to play the last four rounds of the Chinese Super League, compete with the guangzhou team with the same score for the second place in the league, and prepare for the final of the Shandong Taishan FA Cup on January 9 next year.