In the second round of AFC Champions League Group J, Wuhan Sanzhen will challenge Pohang Steelers on the road. With no advantage in strength and playing away from home, Wuhan Sanzhen's prospect is not optimistic. However, a draw with Urawa Red Diamonds in their first match in the AFC Champions League still gives people some expectations for Wuhan Sanzhen. Aziz's overhead kick helped his team to take the first lead in the whole match, but then POSCO utilized their strength advantage to completely overwhelm Wuhan Sanzhen, and eventually ended up in the whole match. POSCO came back to beat Wuhan Sanzhen 3:1, and with two consecutive victories also moved up to the first place in the group, while Wuhan Sanzhen is in the third place in the group.
The match started with Pohang Steelers dominating, but Wuhan Sanzhen were robbing quite fiercely, not creating good attacking chances for their opponents. In the ninth minute, Wuhan Sanzhen took advantage of a corner kick, Davidson crossed to the back and Aziz exploded into the air for a worldie! Just a minute later, Xie Pengfei shot from distance and hit the post. Just two minutes in, Wuhan Sanzhen were a big threat to their opponents.
In the 12th minute, Pohang Steelers had a great cooperation in front of the goal. There was a beautiful shot from the penalty area line that went straight through Liu Dengzheng's goal, and the two teams returned to the same starting line. After the equalizer, POSCO's attack was more fierce, Wuhan Sanzhen's defense was very passive, Liu Yiming got an early yellow card.
The two teams were then locked in a prolonged struggle, with the overall situation under POSCO's control and Wuhan Sanzhen's defense dominating. 38 minutes in, Xie Pengfei flew over his opponent's ankles from the side and the back while defending against Obertan. After the intervention of the video assistant referee, the referee issued a direct red card and Wuhan Sanzhen had to fight with 10 men. In extra time, POSCO created two breakaway chances, both of which were settled by Wuhan Sanzhen. Finally the first half ended with a temporary draw between the two teams.
Throughout the first half, Wuhan Sanzhen played away from home and still had a good overall performance. Although the opponent relied on the home field trend to dominate, Wuhan Sanzhen's defense was relatively stable. Unfortunately, Xie Pengfei's red card brought flaws to the team's overall offensive and defensive formations. During the halftime break, the head coach needs to make timely and appropriate adjustments to prevent conceding a goal when they are outnumbered.
At the start of the second half, the dominant Pohang Steelers continued to attack the Wuhan Sanzhen penalty area. In the 53rd minute, Lee Ho-jae's header was magically parried away by Liu Dinh-ho! Just a minute later, Yan Dinghao made a mistake in the midfield, and POSCO quickly counterattacked, creating a 3-on-3. Zeka took the ball and fired a low shot, which Liu Dianzuo could not save. POSCO broke through and scored over Wuhan Sanzhen. After falling behind, Wuhan Sanzhen tried to counterattack, but could only rely on two foreigners and Wei Shihao in front of the goal.
After 70 minutes of the game, Wuhan Sanzhen was down a man and started to have stamina problems. However, POSCO's offense showed no signs of relaxing and played threatening shots frequently. In the 76th minute, Wuhan Sanzhen's defense was once again cut off by the opponent, and Zeca's long-distance shot from outside the penalty area was slightly off the mark. In the 80th minute, Liu Dianzha lost the ball by hand at the back of the field and the opponent broke the goal. Fortunately, offside was ruled out first. Five minutes later, Pohang Steelers scored again, still ruled offside. Wuhan Sanzhen was very lucky in the end. In the last minute of extra time, Zeca took the ball and penetrated Liu Dengzuo's goal again, eventually reversing the whole game.
Although Wuhan Sanzhen finally lost the game, it must be said that the team's overall performance was still very good. The team's defensive hardness and fighting spirit won the applause of the fans on the field. Xie Pengfei, as the general of the national soccer team, if not for the red card, the result of the game might have developed better. After the game, people recognized Wuhan Sanzhen while expressing their dissatisfaction with the defeated Shandong Taishan. If Shandong Taishan had the hardness of Wuhan, then the team would have scored at least one point. Unfortunately, if the match hadn't, Taishan would already be out of the tournament after losing to Yokohama Mariners.
