On the night of the 8th, the first grand showdown of the new season of China's professional soccer - China Football Association Super Cup, in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Huanglong Sports Center passionately staged, marking the new season of professional soccer drums formally beat. It is worth mentioning that this sports center will also be the stage for the Hangzhou Asian Games soccer final. Last season's match between league leader Wuhan Sanzhen and AFC Cup kingpin Shandong Taishan came to an end with Wuhan Sanzhen winning 2-0 for the first time in their team history.
The significance of this battle goes far beyond the Hangzhou Professional League's "King of Kings" competition, which opened a new chapter in Chinese soccer at a time when the country is mired in anti-corruption turmoil.
As a matter of fact, these two teams are still regarded as favorites in the fight for the Super League title in the new season. The last round of Super Cup matches also initially showed their strength.
For Wuhan Sanzhen, their biggest change is the departure of Malcolm, last season's top scorer, and whether or not new signing Aziz can fill the void is directly related to Sanzhen's performance in the new season.
Shandong Taishan, on the other hand, has a basically stable foreign aid lineup compared to last season. They have the advantage of stability, but the ageing of the core players is a problem that cannot be ignored. Shandong tried to play the rest of the game in the second half, but compared to Fellaini, this strategy seems too passive.
Only 10 minutes into the match, Wuhan Sanzhen broke the deadlock through the tacit understanding between Wei Shihao and Aziz, with the latter's header breaking the deadlock. This also caused Shandong to lose their first half lead.
However, the gap between the top teams is not enough to decide the winner with one goal. In the second half, when Hao Wei was about to replace Fellaini to start a counterattack, Xie Pengfei received a direct feed from Stancho and scored again to extend the score to 2-0. This sudden goal put Shandong in an instant predicament.
Toward the end of the game, Liu Dianzha missed the kickoff and the ball hit Fellaini's back and bounced back into the penalty area, nearly giving Taishan a big gift. However, after the VAR replay, Liu Binbin's shot was ruled offside, and Taishan missed the chance to tie the game. In the 88th minute, Taishan's foreign aid Sun Junho was shown a red card for kicking Davidson, and the game went into a complete tailspin.
Looking at the whole game, defending champions Wuhan Sanzhen showed enough competitiveness with their deep bench strength, while Shandong Taishan needed to find a better balance between new and old players.
The success of the Super Cup heralds the full opening of the new season of China's professional soccer league. 8 am, the Chinese Football Association released the schedule for the new season of the Chinese Super League, the opening game will be held on April 15 in the new Beijing Workers Stadium, the two sides of the host team Beijing Guoan team and Guangdong Meizhou Hakka team.
