The first leg of the FA Cup quarterfinals drew 1-1 with Sichuan Jiuniu in Henan Songshan Longmen, which was the only match in the FA Cup Quarterfinals between the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First Division.
In the 30th minute of the first half, Henan captain foreign aid Ivo volleyed into the penalty area to score, for the team to take the lead, only 2 minutes later, Sichuan Jiuniu took advantage of a corner kick opportunity, by the forward Nan Xiaoheng in the penalty area to grab the 2nd point, barb shot score. 90 minutes of the two sides to 1-1, due to no home and away, the game system of the Yuchuan battle, the winner of the second leg to advance to the 2021 Chinese Football Association Cup Final Four, if the two sides draw, the penalty shootout to decide the winner.
The manager of the Chinese Super League Henan team is no longer Javier, replaced by Spanish coach Antonio Gomez, and the opponent of the First Division Sichuan Jiuniu coach is the former international Li Yi, who is nicknamed "The Emperor". CCTV host He Wei has always called Gomez Javier, who has actually become the head coach of La Liga Levante, while Gong Lei has always called Henan center-back Gu Cao as Gu Chao, and Gu Chao is the goalkeeper of the former Chinese Super League champion, who has been selected for the national team, participated in the last round of 12, and is the goalkeeper of Zhejiang this season. This is also a tidbit of the Battle of Yuchuan.
Henan's starting lineup has 2 foreign aides, goalkeeper Wang Guoqiang, defender line is Dilimulati, Gu Cao, Chen Hao, Ke Zhao, midfielders have Zhong Jinbao, Liu Jiahui, Ma Xingyu, Chen Pu, foreign aid Ivo is mainly responsible for the organization, similar to the role of the forward forward, the top of the forward line is the foreign aid Kalanga.
Sichuan is the dark horse of the FA Cup, 7 teams in the top 8 are Chinese Super League teams, and the only Chinese first team is Sichuan Jiuniu. To tell the truth, Jiuniu's results in the first division this season are average, with 9 wins, 11 draws and 6 losses, temporarily ranking 9th, surpassing hopeless, and relegating worry-free. Jiuniu has a foreign aid starter, goalkeeper Yang Chao, the three central defenders of the defensive line are Geng Xiaoshun, foreign aid Wei Diqi and Li Bowen, the left defender is Wang Zhao, the right defender is Liu Jing, and the midfielder is Wang Chu. Zhang Jiaqi, Xiao Kun, Zheng Shengxiong, the front line is Nan Xiaoheng.
The two sides played for 90 minutes, Henan team dominated in all directions, with a possession rate of 54% to 46%, shooting 4 to 4, shooting 2 to 1, attacking 114 to 46, and dangerous offense 62 to 19.
Li Yi's team performed well in this game, after the Sichuan derby eliminated Chengdu Rongcheng. It is not easy for the Jiuniu team to play the ball at a fast pace in the Battle of Yuchuan; the competition between the two sides in the midfield is more fierce, there are many mistakes, losing the ball, counter-snatching, losing the ball again, and then counter-snatching, running through the whole field. In the first half, the Jiuniu team can also organize the attack, the second half is basically besieged by the opponent, fortunately, the 1.89-meter-tall central defender Serbian foreign aid Vidic performed steadily, staring at the Henan arrow foreign aid Kalanga, who ran actively, but was closely stared at by Sichuan defender Geng Xiaoshun, and rarely could break through with the ball directly to face the goalkeeper.
In the 63rd and 74th minutes of the second half, Gomez replaced Feng Boxuan, Zhao Yuhao and Han Dong respectively, and replaced Ke Zhao, Chen Hao and Chen Pu, both offensive midfielders and forwards, as well as defenders. Although Henan has the advantage, it is difficult for the two wing attacks to tear apart the opponent's defense. Sichuan team attack and defense balance, whether it is a defender, or a midfield player, the passing and receiving of the ball is mostly a ground ball, rarely open a big foot, and after losing the ball can be rebounded on the spot, which also makes the Henan team's attack frequently blocked.
Although Li Yi was a player who played as a striker, as the head coach also has experience in defensive scheduling, the position of 3 central defenders, running position, staring defense is quite sophisticated, after the injury of central defender Vidic, Geng Xiaoshun sat in the middle of the road, while sending Nuaili to strengthen the right side defense to ensure that the city gate is not lost.
Sichuan Jiuniu has many characteristic players, in addition to Nan Xiaoheng, there are also Zheng Shengxiong, Zhang Jiaqi, Wang Chu and defenders Geng Xiaoshun and Li Bowen. Li Yi also has a winner-loser and a secret weapon, "Nan song + Xia Dalong" this pair of attack combinations, one is only 1.70 meters tall, good technology, accurate passing and receiving, flexible running position, forward and shooting awareness; the other is a high school forward, 1.90 meters tall, the team plays 45 degrees long pass rush, both in the front court to grab the nodding ball to attack the goal, but also can head the ferry, for the teammate to grab the 2nd point to attack the goal as the first fulcrum, "Nanxia combination" on the field to Henan team defense poses a great threat, before the end of the second half of the game, Nan Song's furious left-footed shot almost scored, and the ball hit the side-netting.
Jia Zhiliang, the on-duty referee of the Battle of Yuchuan, has some penalties that are debatable. For example, Henan won a free kick in front of the field, right-back Dilimurati served the ball quickly for the first time, the result was blown invalid and re-issued, and was also shown a yellow card warning, this penalty is not necessary; Kalanga continuously blocked the Jiuniu goalkeeper in the 70th minute, was shown a yellow card warning, according to the saying, only a verbal warning can be; and the Jiuniu defender delayed the game time, could have directly shown the yellow card, but Jia Zhiliang only took out the yellow card to scare a little, did not formally punish, directly put the yellow card into the pocket, which is a bit funny.
The two legs of the FA Cup quarter-finals, that is, 180 minutes, are equivalent to the first two halves of the game, yuchuan battle in the first half of the 90 minutes to a 1-1 draw, the second half 90 minutes is crucial.
From a common sense point of view, Gomez wants to win the first leg, send 2 foreign aid to start, Henan's strength would have been superior, should be able to smoothly advance to the top 4. However, before the end of the game, there were variables, Kalanga accidentally ate the second personal yellow card of the game, two yellows turned into one red, was sent off on the spot, 4 minutes of stoppage time, Henan played more with less, and the 1-1 score remained until the end. The suspension of Kalanga's red card in the second leg had a great impact on henan's tactical arrangements, and it was a big plus for Li Yi and Sichuan Jiuniu, and the hope of advancing to the final four of the FA Cup was greatly increased.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Gomez said: "Kalanga's role is not only reflected in the goal, his tactical role is very large, including the defense of set-pieces. Against the Chinese First Division team, we can only play two foreign players, and there needs to be a trade-off. It's not that we don't want Toure to play, but he had some problems with his equipment when he was ready to play, which led to the eventual failure to play. ”
Li Yi said: "The two-legged game is unfair to the weak team. If we decide the winner or loser and play penalties, we are likely to qualify. We don't have enough bench depth, we don't rest enough, the other side has more foreign aid, and we can rotate, which is very difficult for us. The organizers of the tournament may not have considered that there would be a team in the middle of the first division reaching the quarterfinals, which was unfair to us. But playing games with Chinese Super League teams, playing games like this, we can improve. ”
Who can win the second round of the Yuchuan Battle, the balance seems to be tilting towards Li Yi!