On August 8, the night was low, the fierce battle was in full swing in the Central League, the 13th round of the "top of the table showdown" came to an end. Although Nanjing City failed to beat the leading Guangxi Pingguo at home, the gap between Nanjing City and their rivals remained at 4 points. However, the course of the game was quite gratifying for head coach Cao Rui. Since Cao Rui took charge of the coaching whip of Nanjing City, the team's league record of 4 wins and 3 draws is indestructible, and the dream of Chinese Super League has surfaced again.
The streak is strong, accumulating five points in the books.
Looking back at the recent three matches from Round 11 to Round 13, NJC first drew 1-1 with Qingdao West Coast on the road, and then beat third-ranked Jinan Xingzhou with a score of 2-1. In the 13th round home match against Guangxi Pingguo, Nanjing City almost completely controlled the rhythm of the game, and in the second half of the game, they even bombarded Pingguo Hanyin's goal, but unfortunately could not be converted into goals. Pingguo Hanyin was not without strength. In the second half, a header almost broke the goal, but Huang Zihao saved the ball from the crossbar with his own strength.
After the draw with Guangxi Pingguo, Cao Rui said, "First of all, I want to thank the players for their efforts. The weather was hot in Nanjing today, but under these circumstances, they persisted for 90 minutes. I am very satisfied with the course of the game. To be honest, I'm not satisfied with the result because the two teams have similar strengths and missed some absolute chances. If we could have capitalized on those chances, we might have won the game. Now, we have to improve our ability to capitalize on our chances."
Cao Rui has revamped the team with remarkable results.
Before the start of this season's China First Division League, Nanjing City had shouted the slogan "overtake". However, the first six rounds of matches only achieved two wins, three draws and one loss, five points behind the super zone, a poor record. Then, Cao Rui, a famous Jiangsu soccer player who led Nantong Zhiyun to succeed in the Super League last season, replaced Oscar and became the head coach of Nanjing City. Now, Cao Rui led the team to play 7 rounds of league matches and achieved an undefeated record of 4 wins and 3 draws, accumulating 15 points, the team is back on track.
Currently, Cao Rui's arrival is crucial for Nanjing City. Despite failing to win this round, Nanjing City slipped temporarily to third in the Central League ranking and still has a chance to overtake.
After the match on the evening of the 8th, when asked "whether the transformation of the team after taking office meets the expectations", Cao Rui frankly said: "Transformation of a team may take half a year to a year, but to be honest, the players contacted us in a month to perform well, and their understanding of the ability to understand is very strong, I think that at this stage has been completed! 60% to 70%, it's going well."
Now, Nanjing City is in the third place with 24 points, and the gap with Guangxi Pingguo Ha Rang is still 4 points. Sichuan Jiuiu won this round with 26 points, ranking second. In the next round, Nanjing City will usher in a "6-point battle" on the road, and Sichuan Jiuniu head-to-head.
