This weekend, the 2024 Chinese Super League season ushered in the 6th round, Shenhua and Haigang will welcome strong opponents at their respective home stadiums, and these two games are undoubtedly the focus of this round.
At 19:35 on the evening of April 13, Russia's Slutsky whip Shenhua faced the old rival Beijing Guoan, and at 19:35 on the evening of April 14, the harbor of the Australian foreign coach Muscat played against the giant army Shandong Taishan, there is no doubt that the "Shanghai Twin Heroes" will stage a big showdown between the Super League giants in this round.
The Luhu battle is very similar to the Beijing-Shanghai war, the two sides of the battle are Taishan and Haigang, both of which are ultra-luxury teams in the top league of Chinese football.
Last season, Harbour won the Chinese Super League championship with 19 wins, 6 draws, 5 losses and 63 points, and Taishan finished second with 16 wins, 10 draws and 4 losses and 58 points, finishing second in the league.
The two teams are very familiar, except that the coach of Harbour has changed from Javier Pereira to Muscat and the head coach of Taishan is still Choi Kang-hee of South Korea.
In the last 5 rounds, 3 wins and 2 draws, Harbour has 11 points, temporarily ranked 3rd in the league, scored 11 goals, conceded 4 goals, and ranked 2nd in the top 16 of the Chinese Super League, second only to the leader Shenhua, and the defensive end is good, conceding fewer goals and tied for 3rd.
Since the beginning of this season, Harbour has only lost one game - the Super Cup final, lost to the city rival Shenhua, and the other 5 games 3-1 Three Towns, 0-0 Zhejiang, 3-1 Henan, 2-2 Guoan, 3-0 Nantong, basically encountered a strong opponent to draw, and encountered a weak team with 3 goals "minimum consumption" to score all 3 points.
Mu Shuai basically will not use full 5 foreign aid starters, the main force is Yan Junling, Oscar, Wu Lei, Vargas, Jiang Guangtai, Rusa, Wang Shenchao, Wang Zhenao, Zhang Linpeng, etc., like foreign aid Chitadini, Feng Jin, Gustavo, Xu Xin, Li Ang, Li Shuai and others, one as a starter, one as a substitute.
If the Taishan team wants to steal points away from home, they must focus on preventing the top scorer Wu Lei and foreign aid Oscar, the "King of Wuqiu" scored 5 goals and ranked first on the scorer list, Oscar scored 2 penalties and assisted 2 goals. Of course, it is also necessary to limit the foreign player Vargas on the left.
Last season, the two teams played to a 1-1 draw over two legs, and it is likely that Harbour will not be able to play such a score of 1-1 again after the change of manager.
At present, Taishan has 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 8 points, temporarily ranking 7th in the Super League standings, with a difference of 3 points with Harbour.
Taishan's performance in the last 3 rounds was average, only 4 points, 0-3 loss to Shenhua, 1-0 victory over Manatee, 2-2 draw with Henan.
These 3 opponents are slightly stronger than Shenhua, and the other 2 teams are opponents that Taishan should get 6 points.
Objectively speaking, Choi Kang-hee should have scored at least 6 points, but the Koreans are also "difficult for a good woman to cook without rice", there are many injuries in the team, and other teams only focus on the Chinese Super League, while Taishan led by Cui is a "AFC Champions League + Chinese Super League" and "two-line operation".
So far this season, Taishan has played 9 games, 6 big players participated in the round of 36, two matches in the past week, injuries one after another, more than 10 people, so that Cui Shuai is overstretched.
Taishan's first team is aging, with 17 players over the age of 30: Jia Desong 32 years old, Zheng Zheng 35 years old, Song Long 35 years old, Liao Lisheng 31 years old, Wang Tong 31 years old, Liu Binbin 31 years old, Bi Jinhao 33 years old, Shi Ke 31 years old, Ji Xiang 34 years old, Li Yuanyi 31 years old, Wang Dalei 35 years old, Peng Xinli 33 years old, Wu Xinghan 31 years old and others injured, Han Rongze 31 years old, Waco 31 years old, Zhang Chi 37 years old, Fernando 31 years old.
Therefore, Choi Kang-hee said at the pre-match press conference: "It is true that since the AFC Champions League, we have been in a very tired state and have a lot of injuries. [With the return of injured players], I believe our team will get better and better. ”
He added: "This game is very important for the league standings in the first half of the year, the opponent has key players, the attack has special characteristics, we are doing our best to play our attack and play our characteristics。。。。。。 All teams have their slumps and I believe we will get better and regain our form and results over the long season. ”
It is reported that in the pre-game adaptation training of Taishan, all 23 people participated, Shi Ke and Li Yuanyi returned, Cressan has recovered from jogging, and the physical condition of the "Dinghai Shenpin" foreign aid Judson of the guard line can play a full 90 minutes.
Cressan, Judson, Delgado, Kazaishvili and Pato and other five foreign aides are not lacking, which is the best news, midfielders Liao Lisheng, Huang Zhengyu and Abdou Suli can play at any time, Wu Xinghan is expected to continue to start.
April 12th is the 65th birthday of Taishan head coach Cui Kangxi, the club official sent birthday wishes to the old coach, fans in Taishan team arrived in Shanghai, the pick-up Lu Mi also sang a happy birthday song.
Perhaps the Taishan players are thinking about how to give Coach Cui a "birthday gift" with special significance? For example, the away victory over Shanghai Port, taking all three points, and winning the Luhu battle, this is the best gift.
It is more beneficial to Taishan that this round of the harbor home game against Taishan, by the "China's first whistle" Ma Ning as the referee, it is worth mentioning that in Ma Ning's previous law enforcement of Taishan 6 games, 4 wins and 2 draws, Taishan has not tasted defeat, as follows:
5 games in the 2023 season, 4 of which are in the Chinese Super League, 2-1 Zhejiang on April 25, 2-2 Chengdu on May 10, 3-0 Guoan on July 30, 2-1 Three Towns on September 29, 1 game in the FA Cup, 1-1 Guoan, and 1 game in the 2024 season is the second round of the Chinese Super League, 0-0 Guoan.
Obviously, to a certain extent, Ma Ning enforces the law, and Mount Tai is like a divine help, which can be called a big "lucky star".
In fact, the Luhu battle is definitely a national-level derby, Taishan active international players have Wang Dalei, Liu Yang, Gao Zhunyi, Chen Pu, Xie Wenneng, Li Yuanyi, Fernando 7 people, harbor active international players have Wu Lei, Zhang Linpeng, Yan Junling, Jiang Guangtai, Wang Zhenao, Li Shuai, Li Ang 7 people, the two teams are tied for the first major international players
In addition to Wu Lei, who is a striker, the others serve as the back line and are the national number defense line, while the Taishan international has more midfielders, with 4 people and 3 people in the back line.
The number of goals scored and conceded in the first 5 rounds of the two teams is, Harbour scored 11 goals and conceded 4 goals, Taishan scored 7 goals and conceded as many as 7 goals.
To a certain extent, the Luhu battle is about who defends better and who can limit the opponent's strengths.