In the 25th round of the Chinese Super League (CSL), Shanghai Shenhua won a thrilling 4-3 victory over Zhejiang on September 13, Beijing time. After the match, Shenhua's head coach Slutsky attended a press conference and gave an in-depth analysis and summary of the game.
Slutsky began by recognizing the intensity of the game: "It was a passionate game, with both teams showing a high level of competitiveness and fighting spirit. After the game, we needed some time to calm down. Although there were some controversial calls in the game, including the validity of the opponent's final goal, the referee made his decision through the VAR system and we respect the referee's decision."
Speaking about the problems faced by the team, Slutsky bluntly pointed out the problems of the national team players upon their return to the team: "The players who came back from the national team and Chen Jinyi, who represented Hong Kong, China, have forgotten about some of our tactical principles upon their return to the club. This is something we need to go back and address further. Especially in the first half, we conceded a goal very quickly, which shows that we still need to be more alert and consistent on the defensive end."
When asked about Fernando's performance, Slutsky spoke highly of it, "Fernando was excellent today, he usually shows a high level of performance, both in training and in matches. Today, he was even one of our best performers. Considering that he also played in the national team game two days ago and played almost the whole game, it is not easy to have such a performance."
Speaking about the key moments in the game, Slutsky recalled, "It was a real shame that we were unlucky to concede the third goal when we were preparing to replace Eddie. And in the final moments of the game, the other team had a couple of chances to almost equalize, which made our whole team very nervous. Especially for the blown goal, the opposing player did commit a blocking foul, which is not allowed by the rules. At that time, I was praying very much inside that the referee would make the right call, and in the end the referee followed the rules."
