On the afternoon of October 18, the Changchun Division of the 2021 Chinese Football Association Cup will begin the second round (16 into 8), with Shanghai Shenhua playing against the host Changchun Yatai.
In the history of the FA Cup, Shenhua and Yatai have met twice before, in the 2000 season and the 2012 season. Among them, on June 11, 2000, Shanghai Shenhua lost 0:1 to Changchun Yatai after 90 minutes of fierce battle at Changchun City Stadium, stopping the second round of the FA Cup that season. Twelve years later, on July 18, 2012, Shenhua once again went north to Changchun to challenge yatai. At that time, The Ivorian star Didier Drogba, who had just led the LinkedIn Grand Giants Chelsea to win the Champions League and won the MVP of the Champions League final, announced that he had joined Shenhua, making Shenhua a hot spot.
But in that game, Drogba did not "get his wish" on the stage, and the ambitious Shenhua finally returned home. In the 90-minute regular time, Shenhua and Yatai exchanged white rolls 0:0 and directly entered the penalty shootout according to the rules. In the first three rounds, Moreno, Feng Renliang and Yan Song, who represented Shenhua, hit successively, and Yatai's three players also played without false starts. In the key round 4, the yatai player Cao Tianbao, who came first, pushed the middle of the road, the ball rubbed on the finger of Shenhua goalkeeper Wang Dalei and entered the net, while yu Tao, a Shenhua player who came out later, chose to push under heavy pressure, and the ball was deflected out of the left goalpost. With the 5th round, Yatai player Qu Xiaohui pushed the right side of the hand, Shenhua finally lost 3:5, no chance to advance to the next round.
As a Chinese Super League team, Changchun Yatai directly entered the main stage of this season's FA Cup, and home battles also increased their possibility of advancing to the quarterfinals. On October 13, in the first round of the FA Cup (32 into 16), Changchun Yatai sat in the "Nanling" (Changchun Stadium) 4-0 victory over the Zhejiang team played by the all-Chinese class to advance to the round of 16. Tan Long scored the best player of the game twice, with Eric and Dili imiti scoring one goal each.
Shenhua also directly advanced to the main stage of this season's FA Cup. The 32-in-16 match against the Sichuan Minzu Football Team from the Chinese Second League, shenhua soldiers who sent the all-China class to play without bloodshed, relying on the excellent performances of Yang Xu, Yu Hanchao and Sun Shilin, three former Liaoning football players, won easily 3:0.
With Shenhua missing out on the Champions League in the Chinese Super League, the FA Cup became their only chance to qualify for the AFC Champions League next season. Shenhua acting head coach Mao Yijun has said that since the team regrouped on September 1, it has mainly prepared for the FA Cup. Through several warm-up matches, the players have conducted targeted drills according to the situation of the FA Cup. Before the match against Changchun Yatai, Mao Yijun pointed out that this is the third time that the two sides have met this season, the two teams are more familiar with each other, Changchun Yatai has significantly improved in the strength of the team, the characteristics of the team are very distinct, but the Shenhua team has made positive preparations, and the whole team will definitely go all out to play a good game.
However, from the historical head-to-head record, Shenhua did not have an advantage against Changchun Yatai, in addition to the two fawnings in the FA Cup ended in failure, the league had a total of 28 meetings, and Shenhua was also at a disadvantage with 7 wins, 9 draws and 12 losses. In this season's Chinese Super League, Shenhua lost to Yatai with 0:1 and 1:2 scores respectively, and suffered a "double kill" from the opponent, which seems to have cast a shadow on Shenhua's prospects for the FA Cup.
Competition time: 15:00, October 18, 2021 (Beijing time)
Venue: Changchun Stadium (Nanling)