In tonight's 22nd round of the Chinese Super League, Shandong Taishan challenged Guoan away from home, and despite the fact that the venue was only open to Rizhao fans, which made the trip as intimate as a home game, Taishan failed to capitalize on the opportunity and ended up in a 3-3 draw with Guoan, widening the gap with the leading group, Wuhan Sanzhen, to three points.
As the league progresses, the battle for the title seems to have been condensed between Wuhan Sanzhen and Shandong Taishan. Three Town, in particular, had a 12-game winning streak as newcomers, almost touching the longest winning streak in the Chinese Super League, but with injuries and suspensions to foreign players, their form took a sharp turn for the worse in September, with two consecutive rounds of defeats that saw their lead shrink from seven points to one. Even though Malcolm scored his 18th goal of the season in this round's win over Jinmen Tigers, injuries once again found their way to the door.
Shandong Taishan team in the first two rounds of no win, after a period of depression, first 4-0 sweep Shenzhen, followed by 2-1 reversal of Meizhou Hakka away from home, to achieve two consecutive victories, and Guoan team points gap narrowed to 1 point. However, away from home against Guoan, although Taishan team enjoyed the "home" treatment, but because of the defense of the set-piece ball continuous errors, once 1-3 down.
Luckily, Brazilian foreigner Moises stepped up in the closing stages of the game and scored a header from a set-piece opportunity and a penalty under pressure before the final whistle, and Taishan eventually chased down two goals in a row to level the score at 3-3. After this round, the gap between Taishan and Sanzhen widened from one to three points, and Taishan missed the opportunity to close the gap.
However, the 3-point gap is not too big, while Sanzhen's side's key foreigner Stanchou has just returned and top scorer Malcolm has suffered an injury. With only one game separating the two sides, the title may have to wait until the final moments to be revealed.
