In the 20th round of the Chinese Super League on August 5, the Shenzhen team fought for 75 minutes on the road and lost to the Cangzhou Lions by a score of 0-1 despite their full defense. At the same time, the Dalian People's team successfully got rid of the relegation zone in this round, and Nantong Zhiyun team drew, which undoubtedly makes the Shenzhen football team at the end of the table to face more pressure, and the gap with the rivals has widened to 3 points, the road to relegation is more and more difficult.
It is worth mentioning that SZF lost four of their main players - Jiang Zhipeng, Yuan Mincheng, Zhang Yuan and Mi Haolun - in the summer transfer window, with their contracts terminated due to arbitration termination, which caused the team's strength to plummet. Even more unfortunate, the team's top scorer, Achim Pang, was fined a whopping 40,000 RMB for a four-game suspension for slapping an opponent in a game. As he received a red card in the match, Shenzhen will be without this key scorer for five consecutive rounds.
Last summer, Shamrocks' main backline outside backer Vakaso was loaned out to Belgium's Auburn, leaving the team strapped for personnel. However, Vakaso's performance brought a hint of comfort to the team. He attempted a super long, heavy shot from long range in the opening 10 minutes of the game, which proved the defensive ability of Cangzhou keeper Shao Pu-liang despite failing to break through the goal. However, without Achimpen, Shenzhen lost the most powerful explosive point in the defensive counterattack. Led by captain Zhang Yuan, the team was united in the backline, with Vaccaro in the midfield position connecting the midfield and the backfield, making the overall defense more organized.
Cangzhou had three foreigners in their starting lineup: Locadia, Oscar and Owusu. In the second half, Head Coach Zhao Junzhe replaced foreigner Školjic and kept pounding Shenzhen's defense with four foreigners. After 75 minutes of persistence, Shenzhen defended well in the sports game, but exposed weaknesses on set pieces. On the front right side of the game, Cangzhou got a free kick and defender Wang Peng headed it in.
Although SZF has suffered 10 rounds without a win, captain Zhang Yuan was satisfied with the overall performance of the team. He thought that the whole team had put in great efforts and only had a little bit of bad luck. In this game, Zhang Yuan played the whole game, he made 7 successful fights for the top and 5 clearances, his performance was very outstanding.
