In the first round of the AFC Champions League season, Wuhan Three Town hosted Urawa Red Diamonds in a thrilling battle that raised expectations for the Chinese Super League (CSL) trio's performance in the Asian tournament. However, in the second round of the tournament, the Chinese Super League team suffered a Waterloo - three consecutive defeats, against Japan, South Korea and Australia, all swallowed the bitter fruit of defeat.
Shandong Taishan became the representative of the Chinese Super League in the second round, and went home with a 0-1 defeat against Yokohama Marinos. Though Klassen's two strikes on the front post seemed to be attributed to bad luck, the team had no chance of winning the next two matches in the Chinese Super League.
Meanwhile, Wuhan Sanzhen had been the leader of the Super League AFC Champions League in the last round, facing the challenge of Urawa Red Diamonds and dominating for a while. But away against Pohang Steelers, Wuhan Sanzhen tasted defeat after being chased by their opponents for three consecutive goals after leading by one goal. In the first two rounds, Shandong Taishan won and lost, accumulating three points.
In fact, Wuhan Sanzhen did not have no chance to equalize the score, but the players' mentality was imbalanced when they were behind, which led to Xie Pengfei receiving a red card for irrational shoveling. At the beginning of the game, before the ball crossed the opponent's half, Xie Pengfei shoveled the ball from the backfield, directly to the opponent's ankle.
Initially, the referee showed a yellow card, but after the VAR video assistant referee intervened, the referee changed the decision to a red card. Less than 40 minutes into the first half, Wuhan Sanzhen faced a one-goal deficit and a man down.
Xie Pengfei, a popular player in international football, had won the recognition of the fans with his outstanding performance in the training of the national team. However, he did not keep his cool in this match and eventually left the field with a red card. 10 men against 11, already a goal down, Wuhan Sanzhen's situation is even more difficult.
Although the team was able to withstand the fierce attack of the opponents in the second half, they conceded another goal in the injury time and finally lost 1-3. With 1 draw and 1 loss in the first two rounds, Wuhan Three Town only accumulated 1 point.
Zhejiang lost their next match away to Buriram, but still failed to learn a lesson when they faced Melbourne at home. Only three minutes into the match, the opponents capitalized on a mistake by Zhejiang's foreigner Frank to score a goal. Melbourne took a 2-0 lead in the 17th minute.
After conceding two goals, Zhejiang woke up like a dream. Two minutes later, a penalty kick opportunity was utilized to equalize a goal. Despite the ensuing attacks, they were never able to change the score and eventually lost to Melbourne 1-2.
Zhejiang's defensive problems in the AFC Champions League were obvious, often being broken by their opponents. What is puzzling is that the Zhejiang team has performed well in the league, scoring the most points in the second half, and is in better shape than Wuhan Sanzhen and Shandong Taishan. However, in the AFC Champions League, the team looks out of place, becoming a typical example of "outside the game, inside the game".
Melbourne City is a limited team and drew with substitute J2 team Kofu Fung Lam at home in the last round. Kofu Fung Lam beat Buriram 1-0 in this round, making Zhejiang the weakest team in the group after losing both rounds.
Summarizing the first two rounds of the AFC Champions League, the three Chinese Super League only accumulated 4 points, all from the first round of games, the second round of particles. The Chinese super team offense is weak, was beaten back to the original shape, has long lost the "gold dollar soccer" of the sharp.
