As night falls, the 21st round of the Chinese Super League is back on, and Guangzhou City will meet the challenge of Shenzhen at their own stadium. On one side, Guangzhou City is in the relegation abyss, while on the other side, Shenzhen is slipping down the table. Both teams are in desperate need of points, especially Guangzhou City, who are only in single digits and have a strong desire to win. However, Shenzhen's recent situation is also not optimistic, and they want to take at least one point away from Yuexiu Mountain.
"Who are we to talk about rotation?" Li Wei Feng asked rhetorically.
In the last round of matches, Guangzhou City suffered a 0-2 defeat away to Shanghai Seaport, both in terms of score and spectacle. Facing such a strong opponent as Shanghai Harbor, Guangzhou City was able to accept it despite the interruption of their two-game winning streak. For them, the real rivals are not the teams at the top of the table, but those who are also struggling in the relegation line.
After 18 rounds, Guangzhou City is in the bottom two with 3 wins and 15 losses, 8 points away from Wuhan Changjiang (17 points) in the bottom four, with relegation alarms sounding.
Talking about the loss to Harbour, Guangzhou City's manager Li Wei Feng admitted that the loss was inevitable against an opponent with a huge difference in strength. However, he believes that the team still showed a good demeanor in the game. "In that game, we did well in running and sprinting, we just lacked the understanding of the game," Li Wei Feng said, "I have full confidence in the players, and all we have to do now is to play well in the next game."
In the last round of matches, starting striker Song Wenjie failed to play, after nearly 10 days of recovery, he has returned to the team. Li Wei Feng said the current situation no longer allows discussion of rotating the lineup, and that every game is a battle of life and death. "What qualifications do we have to talk about rotation? We can only go all out!"
"Everyone is well aware of the current situation!" Zhang Xiurui said bluntly.
Shenzhen's situation is similar to Guangzhou City. Despite having 10 more points than Guangzhou City, Shenzhen is also in desperate need of points to stop the bleeding, even if it's a draw. Zhang Xiaorui, acting head coach of SZFC, said that this is a game worth six points. "Everyone is well aware of the current situation, and everyone needs points, so we're going to try to go home with points."
In terms of physical fitness, Shenzhen is inferior to Guangzhou City. Compared to Guangzhou City's "wait and see", Shenzhen's team is exhausted after 3 games and they need to recover as soon as possible. Zhang Xiurui said, the team has been flying, the main task is to recover, training time is very limited.
Well, the home problem has finally been solved, Foshan's Nanhai Sports Center will soon be opened. According to the schedule, the Shenzhen team is expected to play in Foshan continuous "home". But the fastest to the end of October to realize. At present, the Shenzhen team needs to focus on playing well with Guangzhou City, as well as the next game in Haikou and Shanghai Shenhua.
Shenzhen team has been plagued by injuries before, especially the foreigners. The good news is that South Korean center back Lim Chae-min is gradually coming out of his injury and is expected to play against Guangzhou City, which is undoubtedly good news for the poorly defended Shenzhen team.
