At the beginning of the season, Qingdao West Coast soccer team came out of nowhere like a dark horse. In the first four rounds of matches, they won 2, drew 1 and lost 1, with their only defeat coming to the current leaders. They had beaten Shanghai Shenhua on the road to win the title, but also suffered their first loss on the road. However, with only 2 wins in the following 17 rounds of fixtures, results quickly slipped to the relegation zone and Hisashi Kurosaki's resignation became inevitable.
The new coach is Shao Jiayi, an 80-year-old former international player, an appointment that came as quite a surprise. Shao had an exciting soccer career as a player, but as a coach he is a novice, having just received his professional coaching certificate. He has worked as an assistant coach for the national soccer team and has not been in charge of a club coaching staff. There is speculation that this could be Zheng Zhi's backup. Zheng Zhi had been the top candidate for Qingdao West Coast, and if Zheng Zhi failed to succeed, Shao Jiayi became the alternative.
Shao Jiayi made his debut with the team, hosting the Cangzhou Lions, also in the relegation zone and coached by Li Xiaopeng, and the two sides ended up with a 1:1 draw. Such a result is not ideal, but acceptable in the relegation battle.
The Beijing Guoan team has always maintained a fighting spirit to compete for the title, even if the chances of achieving the goal are slim in many cases. This spirit has made the team beloved and incurred criticism. This season, although there is no hope for the championship, and the chance of fighting for the third place is also very slim, but Beijing Guoan's heart for the championship is still unabated. In the last round of home games against Shanghai Shenhua, if the opponent can not win, will completely lose the hope of winning the championship. However, Guoan killed their rivals with a 2:1 victory at the Gongtian Stadium.
In the real-time Chinese Super League standings, Qingdao West Coast team won 4, drew 6, and lost 12 points in 22 rounds of matches, accumulating 18 points and ranking the second last. Compared to the relegation zone, it is only 2 points less than Meizhou Hakka, and 2 points less than Cangzhou Lions and Changchun Yatai. A win may allow Qingdao West Coast to escape the relegation crisis.
Beijing Guoan is ranked fourth with 12 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses in 22 rounds of matches, accumulating 51 points. Although 11 points behind Chengdu Rongcheng and 6 points ahead of Shandong Taishan, Guoan is likely to lock up the fourth place before the end of the season.
Qingdao West Coast has won 1, drawn 2 and lost 1 in the last 4 rounds of matches, with a decent record but lack of stability.
Beijing Guoan's last four rounds of matches have been equally inconsistent with two wins and two losses, with a big difference between home and away results, two wins at home and two losses on the road.
The two teams have met twice before, last year's AFC Cup 1/8 final, Qingdao West Coast home 1:4 defeat Beijing Guoan; this season's seventh round of the Chinese Super League, Guoan home 4:1 victory over Qingdao West Coast.
In this matchup, the two teams will probably "coexist peacefully". Shao Jiayi hopes to win against his old masters, but the strength of the comparison does not support; Beijing Guoan is stronger, but poor performance on the road, the team's stability is not enough.
