On the night of July 27th, Guangzhou defeated Shandong Taishan by a narrow 2-1 margin in the Guangzhou Division of the 2021 Chinese Super League, with goals from midfielder Yang Liyu and Brazilian striker Ickxon. With this victory, Guangzhou leapfrogged their opponents to the top of the league table by a narrow margin, while sending Taishan to their first defeat of the season. It is worth mentioning that Guangzhou has scored a total of 15 goals in 5 matches since the league resumed, averaging a whopping 3 goals per game.
Revenge battle, avenge the death of an arrow.
Looking back at the first meeting between the two teams this season, Taishan beat Guangzhou 1-0 with a strike from midfielder Fellaini. Since then, Taishan has been occupying the top position in Guangzhou. Although Guangzhou won two consecutive matches quickly after that, the team's overall performance did not meet expectations. Especially when foreigners Talisca and Paulinho returned, the outside world was not optimistic about Guangzhou's prospects this season.
However, in this game, Guangzhou not only managed to limit Taishan's offense, but also kept finding holes in the opponent's defense. Yang Liyu's goal to break the deadlock was a precise pass from Yan Dinghao, who skillfully passed through the backline of Taishan, while Golat and Yang Liyu had already inserted themselves in advance before Yan Dinghao's pass. Although Golat was in an offside position, it was enough to show Cannavaro's subtle attacking arrangement.
One of the major weaknesses of Taishan's defense is the defense of overhead kicks. Although Fellaini has some aerial superiority, the center backs Shi Ke and Zheng Zheng are not dominant in the air, plus the keeper of the game, Han Rongze, is not a counter-attacking goalkeeper like Wang Dalei. In the end, Ickerson scored the winning goal with a header in the second half. Guangzhou not only avenged the loss to Taishan in the first round, but also gave the undefeated opponents their first defeat of the season in the previous 8 rounds of matches.
Guangzhou restarts "minimum spending" mode after rematch
Although Guangzhou played a 442 formation before the match, we found out that the actual formation was still a 343, with Zhang Linpeng and Gao Junyi, two players who can play center back, on the left and right flanks, and Yang Liyu, Gaolat and Eriksen forming the attacking trident. It was this 343 formation that allowed Guangzhou to create more attacking chances and ultimately score goals.
Since the resumption of the Chinese Super League in July, Guangzhou team plus the bye, a total of 5 games, in addition to the first 1-1 and Henan Songshan Longmen draw bye and this game, Guangzhou team broke the opponent's goal at least 3 times. 5 games scored a total of 15 goals, an average of 3 goals, once the "minimum consumption" of the Guangzhou Evergrande is back.
Undefeated in 7 rounds, Canton tops the division
Despite the gap from the once dominant performance in the Chinese Super League, Guangzhou is actually doing quite well this season. Apart from a draw and a loss in the opening two rounds, Guangzhou has been undefeated in the last seven matches with five wins and two draws since the third round. And before this game, Guangzhou and Shenzhen team accumulated the same 15 points, with a small advantage in the second place in the region, only 3 points behind the top of the list of Taishan team.
Prior to this game, Shenzhen in the same division beat Qingdao and tied Taishan in points. If Guangzhou can't win, they will fall to the third place. In the end, Guangzhou had the last laugh 2-1 in the battle for the top spot, which was worth "6 points". In the standings, it tied with Taishan and Shenzhen, and temporarily topped the first place in the region by virtue of the small points.
