Chengdu Rongcheng and Kunshan's fierce battle in the Central League
In the afternoon of May 30, Chengdu Rongcheng had a goal feast against Kunshan in the 8th round of the 2021 season of the Central League, initially leading 2-0, only to be overtaken by Kunshan at one point by 3-2, but fortunately the team did not crumble from the shock, and quickly brought the score to a 3-3 tie.
Chengdu Rongcheng showed a lot of highlights in this match, but the old problems in defense, especially in set piece defense, still dragged the team down. 3-3 final score makes Chengdu Rongcheng fail to win for three consecutive rounds, and now they are in the 5th place of the Central League table with 15 points. If Nantong Zhiyun wins against Beida tonight, Chengdu Rongcheng's ranking may drop further.
Xu Zhengyuan is facing a "crisis of confidence".
Fans worry about the "Afternoon Curse".
In the first phase of the Dalian Division, Chengdu Rongcheng won four matches and drew one, and was at the top of the Central League table. 13 goals were scored in the five matches, which was a strong attacking force. However, after the second stage, Chengdu Rongcheng suffered a series of losses, first 0-2 against Jiangxi Beidamen, and then failed to win against promotion rival Nanjing City in the last round, and finally drew 0-0.
With only 1 draw and 1 loss against two relatively weak teams and no goals in two consecutive rounds, Chengdu Rongcheng has fallen out of the promotion zone. In the early matches of the 8th round, Zhejiang beat leader Meizhou Hakka 5-4 and Shaanxi Chang'an Athletic beat Xinjiang Tianshan Xuebao 1-0, which made Chengdu Rongcheng slipped to the 5th place in the Central League table with one game fewer, making the situation more and more tense.
In the midst of the predicament, Chengdu Rongcheng encountered another strong opponent - this round's opponent, Kunshan, is the only opponent Chengdu Rongcheng failed to defeat in the first stage of the Dalian tournament. In the first round, Chengdu Rongcheng played an extremely tough game, and was 0-1 down for a long period of time until the 88th minute, when it was able to equalize the score with Leonardo's world hook and get one point. At that time, Kunshan's tenacious defense brought Chengdu Rongcheng a great deal of trouble, and if not for the team's captain, right back Zhang Chenglin, who was injured early in the second half, Chengdu Rongcheng might not have been able to stage a great draw.
In fact, Chengdu Rongcheng also suffered a setback at Kunshan in last year's Central League, when the two teams drew 1-1 in the second round of the Super League. The match ended Chengdu Rongcheng's three-game winning streak and was a major turning point in the team's eventual failure to make it to the Super League.
In the last round of the Nanjing city to draw, many Chengdu fans of Xu Zhengyuan these two games of thought and command expressed doubt, the first time encountered a "crisis of confidence" Xu Zhengyuan said after the game, "the first half of the loss of a good opportunity to break the goal, resulting in the second half of the game is very tough." For the second time against Kunshan, Xu Zhengyuan said: "The first round of the encounter is a bit regrettable, we have a goal was blown away in the first half, but the players did not give up. When we meet Kunshan for the second time, we will make adjustments to some of the problems we had earlier, and if we can score first, we should get a better result."
It is worth mentioning that this round of Chengdu Rongcheng and Kunshan team's game was arranged in the afternoon, which also makes many Chengdu fans feel worried - after the thrilling draw with the Kunshan team, the cold loss to the North Gate of Jiangxi Province, these two games are the afternoon game, and in the evening game, Chengdu Rongcheng is undefeated with 4 wins and 1 draw.
Leading, trailing and tying.
Chengdu Rongcheng and Kunshan join forces in goal battle
However, Xu Zhengyuan didn't make any false claims before the match, Chengdu Rongcheng's preparation for the match against Kunshan was very adequate. Although midfielder Wu Guichao was still out due to injury, the three midfielders consisting of Feng Zhuoyi, Gan Chao, and He Xin were obviously more fluent than the previous round, and together with Leonardo and Liu Ruowan vanadium who took turns to drop back to get the ball and receive, Chengdu Rongcheng's center midfield regained its vitality again. Leonardo tested Peng Peng with a long-distance shot in the opening half.
After falling behind 0-1, Kunshan also utilized the impact of powerful foreigner Berto to pose a certain threat to Chengdu Rongcheng. However, Chengdu Rongcheng resisted the pressure and extended their lead with another header. In the 34th minute, Leonardo created a free kick from the edge of the penalty area on the left side, and Feng Zhuoyi took the penalty with a wonderful pass in front of the goal, and the unguarded Liu Ruowan easily headed in another goal, and he also scored his fifth goal of the season.
The second half started with both sides playing back and forth, both sides created threats to each other's goal. In the 58th minute, Kunshan got a corner kick opportunity, goalkeeper Zhang Yino made a mistake in counterattack, and Feng Bo Yuan seized the opportunity again to head the goal of Chengdu Rongcheng, equalizing the score to 2-2, and Chengdu football team's defense of set pieces, which had given people a headache from the last season, was once again in trouble.
Fortunately, Chengdu Rongcheng players did not lose morale after losing 3 goals in a row, Feng Zhuoyi kicked a corner in the 82nd minute, and Liu Tao, the center back, smashed a header in front of the goal to open the door of Kunshan, and strongly equalized the score to 3-3! 1 minute later, Liu Chaoyang's clever left-footed long-distance shot was valiantly deflected by Peng Peng.
In the 84th minute, Leonardo's pass from the right broke through and hit the heel of the opponent's defender, but Peng Peng, the goalkeeper of Kunshan, reacted quickly and pressed the ball on the goal line. In the 90th minute, Chengdu Rongcheng still had the chance to overtake the score, but Hu Mingri failed to touch the ball after receiving a pass from the right side of the field.
