On the night of November 21st, the passionate battle of the 26th round of the Chinese Super League was staged in Jinjiang. Guangzhou City faced Beijing Guoan and despite playing with an extra man in the second half, they were unable to turn the game around and suffered their second consecutive defeat with a score of 1-2.
Looking back at the last five rounds of performance, Guangzhou City won 1, drew 1, and lost 3, including three consecutive games failed to win, and there is still a three-point gap with Wuhan Changjiang, the 15th place in the league. On the other hand, Beijing Guoan, with 4 wins and 1 loss in the last five rounds, only had a defeat against Wuhan Sanzhen, ranking sixth in the league. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time this season that Beijing Guoan beat Guangzhou City by a score of 1-0.
Soon after the match started, Beijing Guoan showed a powerful offense. In the 4th minute, Zhang Xizhe's precise cross was met by Zhang Yuning's leaping header to give Guoan the lead. In the 24th minute, Jiang Xiangyou scored with an assist from Wang Gang, helping Guoan end the first half with a 2-0 lead. Guangzhou City had two shots on goal, but neither of them hit the target and they were underdogs with only 37% possession.
In the second half, Guangzhou City had a chance to equalize the score. In the 51st minute, Beijing Guoan's Yu Dabao was fouled to stop Caldona's one-touch shot, and as a result, he was given a red card, which left Guangzhou City with an extra man. Despite their many attacks and nine shots on goal, they unfortunately lacked accuracy and only scored with one shot on goal in the entire match. In extra time, Cao Yongjing's handball foul "gave away a penalty", and Guilherme took the penalty to bring Guangzhou City back to a goal.
Guangzhou City coach Li Weifeng was absent due to suspension and captain Li Zhe represented the team at the post-match press conference. He said: "Both sides played hard, we have had a very intensive schedule recently and this has led to injury problems to some extent. In the second half, we fielded a lot of young players who showed great momentum, which is what our team needs and what we hope for in the future. If every game goes like the second half, I believe we can avoid relegation."
