On May 20, Henan and Dalian were in a fierce battle in the eighth round of the Chinese Super League. In the first half, Wang Shangyuan was injured accidentally, while Kovic stepped up and opened the door for Henan to win; in the second half, both sides had nothing to do. In the end, Henan beat Dalian by a narrow margin of 1-0, successfully escaping from the relegation zone, while Dalian continued its proud record of seven rounds of undefeated.
Henan is the only team without a win in the first seven rounds with only four draws and three losses, while Dalian is in the bottom four of the table with one win, three draws and three losses. The two teams have met 14 times in the Chinese Super League, with Henan holding a slight disadvantage with two wins, six draws and six losses, but in their last three encounters, Henan won two and drew one, while Dalian maintained its unbeaten streak for six consecutive rounds.
Only 2 minutes into the game, Wang Shangyuan had an unfortunate collision with Luo Xin during defense and was stepped on by Gu Cao in the ankle, fortunately, the examination results showed that Wang Shangyuan was not seriously hurt.
In the 16th minute, Lin Liangming launched an attack from the left side and Huang Jiahui, working in tandem with his teammates, came close to creating a threat inside the box, but the shot hit the bottom line of a Henan defender.
In the 18th minute, Gu Cao made a mistake in defense and Manzocchi made a successful grab inside the box, but the shot was blocked by a defender again.
In the 22nd minute, Dalian passed the ball from the right side of the road, Henan's defenders made a mistake in clearing the ball, and Mamba got the ball and then staged a wonderful aerial shot.
In the 31st minute, Henan passed the ball from the left side, Feng Bo Yuan took the ball, turned skillfully and shot but kicked the ball out of the bottom line.
In the 38th minute, Dalian played a direct ball to Lin Liangming, who was offside with the ball and shot at the goal, but Wang Guoming reacted quickly and parried the ball away.
In the 44th minute, Henan organized an attack in front of the field, and Kovic scored a header to open the first record for his team, 1-0.
In the 51st minute, Kovic passed to Huang Zichang, who back-heeled the ball to Feng Boyuan, whose low shot was parried by Wu Wei.
In the 53rd minute, a misplaced pass by the Dalian defense led to Feng Boyuan passing the ball to Huang Zichang, but Wu Wei was once again outstanding and confiscated the ball.
In the 57th minute, Bosanjic crossed from the right, Manzocchi made a chest stop and made it to Tesonev, who shot but missed the post.
In the 75th minute, Henan won a free kick on the right side, Ke Zhao shot directly at the goal, but sent the ball flying.
Neither team could get anything going for the remainder of the game, and Henan had the last laugh at 1-0.
Henan starting lineup: 19 - Wang Guoming, 4 - Luo Xin, 5 - Gu Cao, 11 - Ke Zhao, 24 - Li Songyi, 6 - Wang Shangyuan (28 mins 16 - Diliyimiti), 17 - Thomas Pina, 8 - Huang Zichang, 9 - Feng Boyuan, 20 - Kovic (49 - Yellow 76 mins 14 - Gao Tianyi), 29 - Zhong Yihao
Dalian starting lineup: 30-Wu Fu, 2-Lin Longchang, 4-Laurez, 18-Ho Yupeng, 10-Tsonev (81 mins. 28-Feyu), 14-Huang Jiahui (46 mins. 40-Bosanjic), 19-Wang Zhen'ao (68 mins. 8-Zhu Ting), 31-Lv Peng (83 mins. 33-Song Zhiwei), 7-Lin Liangming, 11-Mamba (80 mins. 39-Yan Xianggong) , 17-Manzocchi
