The Central League Champions League enters the final round of the group stage on Monday, with each of the three teams in the Super League playing with different goals. Taishan can top the group with an undefeated Yokohama Mariners side. Zhejiang need an away win over Melbourne for more goal difference. Because Wuhan Sanzhen had already exited the tournament early, the last match against Pohang Ironmen became a battle for honor. Wuhan Sanzhen's own squad is not bad, and the team's performance in the AFC Champions League was highly expected at the beginning of the season, but they did not expect the result of their Waterloo in the league and early exit from the AFC Champions League.
In the final round of matches, Wuhan Three Town hosted K-League powerhouse Pohang Ironmen. The latter ranked first in this group and won their first five matches. The record can be said to be quite outstanding. During the match, the stronger Pohang took the initiative to control the whole game, while Wuhan Sanzhen was passive, but they still got many chances. In the 49th minute of the second half, Kang Zhipeng's cross was deflected into his own goal by Korean player Lee Kyu-bo, giving Wuhan Sanzhen a 1-0 lead. In the 77th minute, Pohang Ironman Lee Ho Jae broke through to equalize the score. The visitors had two great chances in the last minute, but both failed to score due to outrageous mistakes, which the fans called too fake. In the end, the two teams drew 1-1.
After this match, Pohang Ironmen advanced undefeated with 5 wins and 1 draw. Defending champions Urawa Red Diamonds missed out on second place in the best of three groups with only seven points. Unfortunately, they are out of the tournament. Hanoi FC and Wuhan got 6 and 5 points respectively. Embarrassingly, Wuhan Tri-Town ranked even behind Vietnam at the bottom of the group. Needless to say, Wuhan Tri-Town's first-ever AFC Champions League ended hastily with an unsatisfactory performance. The main reason for the team's poor performance was that Malcolm missed some of the matches and Stancho left the team, resulting in a significant drop in the team's strength.
Another reason for the poor results in the AFC Champions League is lack of experience. Although there are many former Guangzhou players in the team who have participated in the AFC Champions League, this team is still relatively young and the head coach himself is not experienced enough. This AFC Champions League trip paid its dues, as the defending Chinese Super League champions were severely beaten in the AFC Champions League. However, the team kept their record in the AFC Champions League, i.e. undefeated at home. No team could beat them in Wuhan, but they lost all their away games, which is still a problem of inexperience.
Next season, Wuhan Three Town are ineligible to play in the AFC Champions League and the team's investors have stopped investing, but the stock reform is now making good progress. New shareholders have reportedly begun to be contacted and future survival shouldn't be a problem, but may not invest as much as before. With the AFC Champions League tour over, I'm not sure when I'll be playing in the AFC next time.
