On July 26th, the curtain fell on the 20th round of Chinese Super League (CSL) matches at the home ground of Shenzhen Xinpengcheng. The match between Shenzhen New Pengcheng and Beijing Guoan is undoubtedly a highly anticipated battle.
At the beginning of the match, Nansong's accidental injury in the sixth minute allowed Dai Weijun to come on as a substitute. Both sides went back and forth in the first half, but failed to break the deadlock and the game ended in a 0-0 draw at halftime. In the second half, Zhang Yuning's goal was ruled out for offside, while N'Gadeu's mistake was a big gift. Edu went one-two, Han Jiaqi was called for a foul, and after VAR intervened to award a penalty kick, Edu scored the winning goal into the net. Wei Strider showed excellent save ability to keep the goal intact.
Shenzhen Xinpengcheng successfully made it a double with a narrow 1-0 win over Beijing Guoan and moved up to ninth place in the table. Beijing Guoan, on the other hand, remains in fourth place with six points and a total of 37 points.
The matchup once again highlighted the youth and inadequacy of Beijing Guoan's skipper Suarez. Shenzhen Xinpengcheng used a 4141 formation with three foreigners starting, while Beijing Guoan played in a 433 formation with four foreigners. Zhang Yuning was repeatedly assigned to play as a winger in Suarez's tactical system, but his speed was not superior, which made Suarez's employment strategy questionable. The pace of the game was slow, and neither side was able to create effective attacking opportunities. The only goal came from N'Gadeu's return pass error, Han Jiaqi was awarded a penalty kick, and Edu hit the penalty kick, which became the only goal of the match.
Despite the lack of spectacle in this Chinese Super League match, the three points were worth a lot to Shenzhen Xinpengcheng. They won 1-0 at home against Beijing Guoan, and managed to double their rivals this season (2-1 on the road), accumulating 6 points. If Shenzhen Xinpengcheng can survive relegation this season, Beijing Guoan's assistance is indispensable.
In the whole match, Shenzhen Xinpengcheng's possession was only 40%, but created 18 shots and 5 shots on goal. On the other hand, Beijing Guoan's possession rate was higher, with 11 shots on goal and 3 shots on target. Despite the superiority of possession, Beijing Guoan lacked effective direct threat, just like a grandmother trying to eat crabs, which is not pleasing to the eye, and may even hurt her hand.
