Pre-match tension as Qingdao West Coast and Shijiazhuang Kung Fu are on the line
In the standings, Qingdao West Coast is in second place with 54 points, while Shijiazhuang Kung Fu is in fourth place with 49 points. The 0-0 draw between Nanjing City and Guangxi Pingguo has basically taken the latter out of the overtaking race. If Qingdao West Coast can beat Shijiazhuang Kung Fu in the match, they can complete the overtaking two rounds ahead of schedule. Even the referee was upgraded to international-level referee Wang Di in this fateful showdown.
Shijiazhuang Kung Fu head coach Zhou Lin was suspended due to a red card and was unable to command the game in person, with assistant coach An Qi taking over. The team's main foreigners, Ogbu and Ayovi, led the way, with goalkeeper Sui Weijie captaining the team. Nan Xiaoheng, An Yi Fei, Zhu Haiwei and a host of other players took the field.
On the bench, Venisio and players such as Song Hao Yu and Jia Xiaochen were on standby. Qingdao West Coast head coach Jankovic started Lanier and Wesley with foreigner Ramirez injured, while veteran Tian Yong continued as captain and Chen Zhao as goalkeeper.
On the bench, players such as Huang Jiaqiang and Xue Mengtao are ready to come on as substitutes.
At the beginning of the match, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu started to attack Qingdao West Coast with the advantage of home field. However, the solid defense of Qingdao West Coast did not give the opponent too many chances. After Ramirez was injured, Qingdao West Coast's offense was a bit weak, and the game ended 0-0 at half time.
The match resumed and Qingdao West Coast started to counterattack after holding off Shijiazhuang Kung Fu's offense. In the 65th minute, Zhang Xiuwei had a good chance to shoot, but Sui Weijie saved it. As the match was about to end 0-0, the extra time took a turn for the worse: Qingdao West Coast had a series of shots on goal, and Abu seized the opportunity to score with a heavy shot; then, in the last minute of the extra time, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu's Zhang Chenliang blitzed the equalizer! The goal lasted only 1 minute, but Qingdao West Coast's joy of overtaking disappeared in an instant. This is the charm of soccer!
At the end of the tournament, Qingdao West Coast is still in second place with 55 points, while Shijiazhuang Kung Fu is in third place with 50 points, surpassing Nanjing City. The suspense of overtaking will continue until the next round.
Next round of fixtures previewed: promotion showdown and Super League suspense on Oct. 28
A new round of matches will start at 14:00 on Saturday, October 28th. Shijiazhuang Kung Fu will face promotion rival Dandong Tengyue on the road, while Qingdao West Coast will face Guangzhou on the road. If Qingdao West Coast can get three points in this round of matches, the suspense of the Super League will be revealed one round earlier.
